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A major Australian IVF clinic has disclosed a cyber incident that resulted in potential treatment disruption and threat actors accessing stored data.
In a statement on its website, Genea Fertility revealed that it discovered suspicious activity on its network and that some of its systems have been disabled to contain the breach.
“Genea is urgently investigating a cyber incident after identifying suspicious activity on our network. As soon as we detected the incident, we took immediate steps to contain the incident and secure our systems,” the statement said.
“Out of an abundance of caution, this included taking some of our systems and servers offline while we investigated the incident. These are now being restored while we continue our investigation.”
Genea is one of the top IVF clinics in Australia, with locations in NSW, Victoria, the ACT, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia.
Genea, alongside Monash IVF and Virtus, account for over 80 per cent of the industry’s total revenue, according to the ABC.
The incident first occurred on 14 February, when Genea informed its patients that its phone lines were down.
At the news of the breach, concerned customers of the clinic took to Instagram to express their anxiety regarding the breach, with some concerned that their treatment would be impacted.
IVF treatment is expensive and requires specific timing. According to Genea, IVF treatment can cost between $12,395 and $13,095 per cycle, depending on the type of treatment.
Additionally, missed medication, egg retrieval, blood tests and implanted embryos can result in an unsuccessful treatment.
“Hey I’ve tried contacting my clinic in Orange via the email above, and they still haven’t got back to me, my medication runs out on Thursday, sort of a desperate situation,” said one concerned Genea customer.
Another said: “App still down. Need my blood slip. No answer on emails. Hope this delay doesn’t affect my treatment plan.”
Genea Fertility responded to the customers, asking them to respond to direct messages so that they could be contacted by a nurse regarding their treatment.
Genea also disclosed that the threat actors accessed data, but it is currently unsure what data, if any, has been compromised.
“Our ongoing investigation has identified that an unauthorised third party has accessed Genea data. We are urgently investigating the nature and extent of data that has been accessed and the extent to which it contains personal information,” the statement said.
Genea said it is “working hard to ensure that there is minimal disruption to treatment” and that it will inform individuals if their personal data has been impacted.
Cyber Daily’s own investigation has been unable to identify a threat actor at this time.
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