Ministry of Health hit by virus

The Ministry of Health was hit by a variant of the cryptolocker virus this week, that was attached to a link in an email.

The Ministry of Health was hit by a variant of the cryptolocker virus this week, that was attached to a link in an email.

Graeme Osborne, director of the National Health IT Board, says the virus was controlled with minimal impact on the ministry's work, affecting three PCs across the organisation.

He says files on a shared drive were encrypted, which limited staff ability to use those files until the breach was resolved the next morning.

“The virus entered the system through a link in an email that was clicked on by a staff member,” he says.

Osborne says the ministry's existing protection procedures and security tools remain appropriate.

“We have reiterated to staff the importance of being vigilant about emails coming into the ministry's system from an unknown source," he adds.

“We have shared information about the variant of the virus with the appropriate security vendors and with the security network within the government sector.”

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