Cyber hackers who claimed to have accessed the medical records of over one hundred thousand New Zealanders have agreed to postpone the ransom payment deadline in order to “build a good reputation,” according to a local report on Tuesday.
A Telegram account calling itself “Kazu” claimed it had breached over 428,000 files on the “Manage My Health” platform by providing users with samples to download.
This platform is a secure online health portal and a popular app in New Zealand, allowing patients to access their medical records and book appointments with doctors and hospitals.
Consequently, the platform stores health data and personal information, such as phone numbers and home addresses, for 1.8 million users in New Zealand. Estimates suggest the cyber hackers managed to access the records of between 6% and 7% of them.
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“Kazu” demanded a ransom of $60,000 USD by Tuesday morning to prevent the disclosure or sale of the files.
The hackers have postponed the ransom payment deadline to 5 a.m. Friday (16:00 GMT Thursday).
Building a good reputation within the community
“Kazu” said on Sunday: “Our main goal is to make money and build a good reputation within the community.”
For its part, the platform stated that information related to appointments and prescriptions was not affected by the data breach.
It reported in a statement on Tuesday that it had identified the affected patients and notified them of the incident, but did not comment on the ransom issue.
The Minister of Health launched an investigation into the data breach on Monday, stating: “We must learn from this incident to prevent it from happening again in the future.”
