Australian fertility provider Genea has fallen victim to a cyberattack, resulting in the leak of sensitive patient data. The company, one of the largest fertility providers in Australia, confirmed that hackers had accessed and published sensitive information belonging to its patients.

The cyberattack was carried out by the Termite ransomware gang, which listed Genea on its dark web leak site and claimed to have published sensitive patient data. Samples of the allegedly stolen data, seen by TechCrunch, appear to show government-issued identification documents and sensitive medical records.

In a statement, Genea CEO Tim Yeoh said that the company had identified that "data taken from our systems has been published externally." The company has since been granted a court injunction to prevent any access, use, dissemination, or publication of the impacted data by the threat actor and/or any third party who receives the stolen dataset.

The court order reveals that the hackers breached Genea's Citrix environment on January 31 before extracting approximately 940 GB of data on February 14. Genea said it currently does not know what data was accessed, and Yeoh told TechCrunch that the company is "urgently investigating the nature and extent of the data that has been published."

The patient management system, which contains information such as patients' contact details, Medicare card numbers, health insurance details, medical histories, test results, and medications, was compromised in the breach. However, Genea said there was currently no evidence that patients' financial information, such as credit card details or bank account numbers, had been compromised.

It's not known how many individuals may have been impacted by the breach, but Genea said it is communicating with both current and former patients. The company is working to "securely restore" its systems following the cyberattack, but it did not say whether the incident continues to disrupt patient services.

The breach has raised concerns about the security of sensitive patient data in the healthcare industry. This incident highlights the need for healthcare providers to prioritize cybersecurity and protect patient data from unauthorized access.

In recent years, there has been a surge in cyberattacks on healthcare providers, resulting in the leak of sensitive patient data. This trend is expected to continue unless healthcare providers take proactive measures to strengthen their cybersecurity defenses.

The Genea breach serves as a reminder of the importance of cybersecurity in the healthcare industry. As healthcare providers increasingly rely on digital systems to store and manage patient data, they must also prioritize the security of that data to protect their patients' privacy and confidentiality.