Expect more big hacks, Justice Min. says as ChipSoft confirms leak of patient data
Big hacks like those at ChipSoft and Odido will occur increasingly often, Justice Minister David van Weel said on Friday. Earlier in the day, ChipSoft, which supplies software for the storage of patient records to Dutch hospitals and house doctors, confirmed that hackers stole patient data in the hack on April 8.
“If you don’t want to be hacked, you should turn off the computer and put it in a box in the basement,” Van Weel told ANP before heading into the weekly Council of Ministers meeting. “But then it isn’t of much use. It is a constant balancing act between making things workable and minimizing the risk of being hacked.”
He said that the Cybersecurity Act, which parliament passed this week, is a good step. “It will help us force companies to have their security better in order.”
ChipSoft was hit with a ransomware attack on April 8. On Friday, the company said on its website that the data of “a few Dutch customers” had been stolen and that it had informed the affected healthcare institutions.
A day earlier, sources told NOS that it involves hospitals and other healthcare institutions that use Chipsoft’s HIX365 platform to give patients access to their records. Traffic to and from the patient records runs through Chipsoft’s servers. The hackers may have gained access to that traffic, the sources said.
Several general practitioners, the Rotterdam Eye Hospital, and multiple rehabilitation centers, including Rijndam and Basalt in Zuid-Holland, reported being affected by the hack. A source told the Volkskrant that the hackers were specifically looking for medical information regarding treatments.
A ChipSoft spokesperson confirmed to RTL Nieuws that it concerns the HIX365 platform. She said that it was still unclear how many people had been affected and exactly which medical data had been stolen.
The cyberattack on ChipSoft is just one of several major data leaks so far this year. The biggest yet was an attack on Odido in which hackers stole 6.2 million people’s data. Holiday rental site Booking.com and gym chain Basic-Fit also reported hacks this week.
