Australian healthcare education provider Healthed has revealed a data breach affecting its event participants, caused by a vulnerability in its website.
In an interview with Cyber Daily, Healthed confirmed that it traced the issue to work conducted by a third-party contractor.
“Healthed, an Australian education provider to the healthcare profession, confirms that late yesterday, it became aware of a vulnerability within the Healthed website, traced to work undertaken by a third-party contractor,” a spokesperson for Healthed told Cyber Daily.
The education provider said the cyber incident exposed the names, addresses, postal addresses, and mobile phone numbers of participants who attended its face-to-face educational seminars.
“Healthed acted swiftly to resolve the issue within two hours of it being discovered and immediately advised its delegates and staff of the incident via email,” the spokesperson said, as reported by Cyber Daily. “Healthed deeply regrets the unauthorised sharing of personal contact details caused through this incident. No other personal information was compromised.”
The spokesperson offered reassurances that Healthed has already taken steps to fully secure its website to prevent similar incidents from occurring again.
“The integrity and security of data held by Healthed is a key priority for the company,” the spokesperson said.
The company did not specify how many individuals were impacted, nor if it is aware whether any of the data was accessed while it was exposed.
In a report released this year, cyber risk analytics platform CyberCube stressed the need for government agencies to enhance their cybersecurity measures, safeguard election processes, and collaborate with cybersecurity experts to tackle emerging threats effectively.
Healthcare is identified as the most vulnerable sector to cyber threats, according to CyberCube’s findings. Other sectors susceptible to cyber threats are telecoms, IT, education, retail, arts and entertainment, financials, and services.
William Altman, cyber threat intelligence principal at CyberCube, emphasised the gravity of the threat.
“The public sector becomes an increasingly attractive target for malicious actors seeking to sow chaos and undermine faith in democracy. Moreover, around 64 countries plus the European Union will hold national elections this year, involving nearly half of the world’s population,” he said.
Another study revealed that almost a quarter of Australian businesses faced deepfake security incidents in 2023. Among those affected, 75% reported incidents linked to supply chain partners, and 39% cited partner data as the most frequently compromised data.
