The information services and telephone lines of the health board in New Zealand's Waikato district have been hit by a cyberattack, the board said on Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th May, 2021) The information services and telephone lines of the health board in New Zealand's Waikato district have been hit by a cyberattack, the board said on Tuesday.
"Waikato DHB is currently experiencing a full outage of its Information Services. A Coordinated Incident Management System has been established to resolve the situation as soon as possible. We are currently investigating the cause of this outage," the district health board (DHB) wrote on Facebook.
According to it, despite the incident, medical workers continued their work. Later, the health board added that it "engaged external assistance to address a cyber security incident affecting our Information Services environment."
Kevin Snee, the Waikato DHB chief executive, said that emergency departments at all hospitals take only urgent patients, mentioning that the work of several outpatient clinics was suspended, while elective surgeries were postponed.
Snee also told New Zealand's Stuff website that the DHB will not pay any ransom to hackers. He added that he has no version of who could be behind the attack and does not know whether there is a link with the recent cyberattack against Ireland's health system.
On Friday, the Irish health service executive said that the hacker attack shut down its IT systems. According to Ossian Smyth, minister of state, the cyberattack was aimed at extorting ransom. The authorities opened an investigation into the incident.
