Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul admitted on Tuesday that the personal data of 16 million patients had been stolen from the ministry's database.
He said this after a popular social-media page posted a message on Monday saying that the stolen data, such as patients' address, identification code, mobile number, date of birth, hospital names, doctors' information and hospital systems' passwords, was being sold on Raidforums.com.
The post also said that Raidforums.com had previously successfully hacked into large e-commerce website.
Anutin said he has instructed related officials to investigate the case, adding that this hacking had initially taken place in Phetchabun province.
Anutin vows to take action against thieves of 16 million patients' data
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He said revealing confidential information is a crime and a violation of both the Computer Crime Act and Section 7 of the National Health Act.
"Once the hacker is found, we will take legal action till the end because this has caused damage to the ministry and patients," he said.
Published : September 07, 2021
He added that the number of patients affected was far lower than 16 million as initially reported and that the data was just information on when the patients were admitted and discharged.
"Hence, we called on the provincial public health office to find out if the Public Health Ministry will take legal action," he said, adding that the authorities were waiting for the ministry's response.
Petchabun governor Gid Kongmuang
He also said it was necessary to take legal action because an insider may be involved and the authorities don't know how the data will be used.
Published : September 07, 2021
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