A cyberattack on a Polish healthcare software provider compromised the confidentiality of patients’ personal data, a treatment centre said, weeks after a separate breach exposed records belonging to nearly 19 million people, local media reported on Friday.
The latest attack targeted Qbusoft, the company behind Medyc software used by healthcare providers to manage patient records, Polish broadcaster TVP World reported.
The Rehabilitation and Psychiatric Treatment Centre in Inowroclaw said on Thursday that patients’ contact details and national identification numbers may have been affected. It did not specify how many patients were involved.
Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said the Central Office for Combating Cybercrime was examining the incident as part of a broader investigation. He said the government had issued new security recommendations to companies supplying software to the healthcare sector.
“In the event of a breach of any security procedure by a private company, strict consequences will be imposed,” Gawkowski said.
The incident follows an August breach involving MyDr, a system used by about 12,000 healthcare providers. Data belonging to almost 19 million people, including information on medicines and prescriptions, was exposed in that attack.
Polish FM warns Russia may be preparing ‘something big’ this year
Meanwhile, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has warned that Russia may be preparing a major operation this year and could stage a false-flag attack to justify further mobilisation.
“We are receiving information ... we are not revealing the sources, but there are many (of them), that Russia is preparing something big this year,” Sikorski said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Thursday, according to Polish broadcaster TVP World.
“I believe that Putin needs a pretext for mobilisation, so they could carry out a false-flag attack and tell the Russian people: ‘We are under attack, and therefore we need to mobilise,’ ” he added.
Sikorski did not specify what the reported operation might involve. Asked about possible scenarios, he said Belarusians were concerned about being drawn into the war in Ukraine.
He also warned that Baltic countries with Russian minorities could face escalation, saying NATO must be ready to deter potential aggression.
A full-scale Russian invasion of a NATO member would be “crazy,” he said, suggesting that Moscow might instead pursue a less explicit action that would make it harder for the alliance to invoke its Article 5 mutual-defence clause.
