Ambulance Tasmania patient details published online

Krusty · Jan 7, 2021

The private details of every Tasmanian who has called an ambulance since November last year have been published online in a list still updating each time paramedics are dispatched.

The breach of Ambulance Tasmania's paging system has been described as "horrific" by the Health and Community Services Union, which has suggested the data dump could leave the Government open to litigation.

Pager messages include patients' personal details and condition as well as the address of the incident.

Information made public also includes a patient's HIV status, gender and age, raising concerns it could lead to discrimination or stigmatisation.

"It's unbelievable," state secretary Tim Jacobson said.

"If I were a patient I'd be upset, I'd be concerned, and I would want to know immediately both what the Government has done about closing off this but also what the Government's now doing or likely to do to address any real breaches of privacy for those patients."
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-08/patient-records-pager-messages-published-online/13041958

Krusty · Jan 9, 2021

Cybersecurity expert calls for replacement technology following Tasmanian ambulance patient data leak

A cybersecurity expert has called on the Tasmanian Government to replace its ambulance communication technology to prevent future breaches of confidential patient information.

It was revealed on Friday the private details of every Tasmanian who had called an ambulance since November last year had been published by a third party to a list online that was still updating each time paramedics were dispatched.

The unencrypted information came from pagers being used by paramedics.

Darren Hopkins, a partner at Queensland-based company McGrathNicol, which advises governments and businesses on cybersecurity risks, said it was very difficult to protect sensitive data on radio because it was such old technology.

"If anyone is still using older technologies that are susceptible to this type of loss, they would need to think about replacing them very quickly," he said.
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01...ta-breach-technology-overhaul-needed/13044780

Mr Hopkins said replacement technology would be needed because while pagers work well in remote areas, it was very complicated to encrypt the information being transmitted by them.

"When you find an issue with the technology you're using, you research and find an alternative and implement it as soon as you can," he said.

He said governments across the country struggled with this issue, with a similar incident happening in Victoria in 2014, but most data breaches were internet-based, not radio-based like this one was.
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"They've taken what was radio data, converted it into text-readable data and published it online, and that's particularly concerning because anyone could have captured and have a copy of that information by now," he said.
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Ambulance Tasmania patient details published online

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