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Held to ransom
Aged care provider Regis hit with
ransomware attack.
Aged care providers are being warned to shore up sensitive
data after Australian operator Regis was hit with a
cyberattack.
The provider told investors that the attack on its Burnside facility
was at the hands of an “overseas third party”, who encrypted and
stole confidential data in order to seek ransom payment.
Regis managed to secure its data but some information was
publicly released.
In a statement, Regis said it was contacting parties whose
personal data was leaked.
Dr Linda Mellors, managing director of Regis Healthcare, said:
“Our priority is maintaining safe and reliable operations while
ensuring the security of personal information of our residents,
clients and employees.
“To this end, we are working with expert IT and security advisers
to continue to investigate and deal with this incident.”
The incident was reported to the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner, the Australian Cyber Security Centre
(ACSC) and other regulatory bodies.
The ACSC said cyber criminals view the aged care and
healthcare sectors as lucrative targets for ransomware attacks
because of the bevy of sensitive personal and medical information
they hold.
The centre said the Maze ransomware that the hackers used is
designed to lock or encrypt an organisation’s valuable information
so that it can no longer be used, and has been observed being
used alongside other tools which steal important business
information.
“Cyber criminals may then threaten to post this information
online unless a further ransom is paid,” the centre said in a
statement. “This is especially effective in the aged care and
healthcare sectors.
“Keeping software up to date and having current backups
stored offline is the best way to protect your organisation from a
ransomware attack,” the cybersecurity experts said.
The ACSC also recommended against paying a ransom
demand. “There is no guarantee paying the ransom will fix
your devices, and it could make you vulnerable to further
attacks.” ■
User pays
Survey shows we are willing to
pay more for aged care.
A
largescale survey of 10,000 adults shows that Australians
believe the government should increase funding to the
aged care sector.
The research paper involved speaking with adults not currently
using aged care services and found that 90 per cent of those
surveyed agreed that the government should provide higher
funding for aged care services.
Almost 60 per cent agreed there should be a reallocation of
public expenditure to aged care. And on average, those people
thought the share of public expenditure to aged care should be
doubled.
This survey came soon after the commission released research
looking into new ways of funding aged care appropriately in
the future. This research suggested that the government would
need to increase spending by 50 to 100 per cent on top of what
already goes into the sector.
Consultation paper 2 – Financing Aged Care, floated a scenario
where Australians stump up for an aged care social insurance
scheme to fund the financially failing sector. It could operate
similarly to existing mandatory schemes such as accident
compensation, the Superannuation Guarantee and the Medicare
Levy, and be private or publicly run.
The majority of people said they would be willing to make
co-contribution payments if they needed to access aged care
services in the future, according to the new survey.
Taxpayers said they would be willing to pay higher tax to
better fund aged care. On average taxpayers said they would
pay 1.4 per cent extra income tax for satisfactory aged care and
1.7 per cent extra for high quality services.
The work was carried out by Flinders University on behalf of the
commission and is the first of its kind internationally.
Writing in The Conversation Julie Ratcliffe, Professor of Health
Economics and lead researcher of the study, said that the research
is an important insight into societal views of the current aged care
system and shows that the public know how important funding is
to good aged care.
“There is an urgent need for new investment in aged care
infrastructure to deliver a uniformly skilled and trained workforce
to accommodate the needs, expectations and preferences of
increasing numbers of older people in our society,” Ratcliffe
wrote.
“And finally, there’s an urgent need for stronger integration
between the aged care sector and the health system to ensure all
older Australians can access the care and services they need to
maximise their quality of life.” ■
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