Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan says a 15-year-old hacker is allegedly involved in the breach data leak of thousands of medical records online (WA Health).
The Mandurah is believed to be responsible for one of the largest medical records leaks in the state's history.
The alleged hacker, who has not been identified, describes himself online as a “script kiddie,” which is used to describe “someone who uses existing scripts or codes to hack computers because they lack the experience to create their own.”
The state's coronavirus management system stores thousands of pieces of medical information , including doctor and patient names, addresses, phone numbers and health problems .
Apparently, the 15-year-old hacker created a site and published this confidential information last night.
More than 400 web pages, communications and messages between health officials and doctors were published on the site.
Mr McGowan's office said the breach was linked to a third service, which has now been disabled by the Department of Health.
Due to the situation, paging has been disabled and an SMS program will be used
Mr McGowan said the leak site is down and that the 15-year-old hacker has been found by police.
"I'm sure the site has been shut down. It was a person under 16 who obviously spends a lot of their life online.".
Expert Trevor Long said the data at WA Health is not as complicated as it seems.
“In all honesty, this is a very simple process,” he said. It requires only a little software knowledge and the equipment is easily obtainable.
The 15-year-old hacker created software that gained access to an old, unencrypted network , stole data and messages, and then published them online.
“He has not used backdoors to gain access to data that was not publicly available,” Mr. Long said.
The issue here is that government and medical authorities are not using secure methods to transmit private information.
Mr McGowan said the medical management system is not strictly related to coronavirus and has been in operation for about 12 years.
The leak site had been operating for some time and also contained information that was not clearly related to COVID-19.
In order to track down and shut down the site, McGowan's government contacted the Australian Security Centre in Canberra, but police have so far not arrested the teenager because no government sites or databases have been compromised.
Despite this, the state opposition called for the dismissal of Innovation Minister Dave Kelly over the incident.
