KKM investigates report on patients' medical records leak

Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 -- The Ministry of Health (MOH) views seriously and is investigating a report that 19,992 radiology examinations in Malaysia face the risk of patients’ information exposures.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said that MOH had held a special meeting this morning with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and the National Cyber Security Agency (NACSA) to identify the cause of the exposures.

‘’The lesons from the Greenbone Networks report and cyber attacks taking place worldwide show that we have entered a new era of cyber threat.

‘’The threat to cyber security is continuous and requires much more skills and expert manpower to tackle it,’’ he said in a statement today.

He said that it could take place in any health facility including private hospital services and medical centres at higher institutions of learning, and MOH would reveal the latest development on the issue from time to time.

At the meeting today, MOH also discussed actions that would be taken to contain cyber threats and among the immediate measures being undertaken was the mapping of exposure risks at all health facilities.

MOH was also reviewing the exposure risks at all hospitals using the Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) and upgrading the characteristics and level of security of applications and information technology infrastructures at all health facilities continuously.

On Sept 16, Greenbone Networks, a cyber security company, revealed that the medial records of patients in 52 countries leaked online including Australia, China, Japan, United Kingdom, France, United States, Russia and Brazil.

-- BERNAMA