MediSecure data breach
The Australian Government has been advised by MediSecure that approximately 12.9 million individuals may have had their personal and health information relating to prescriptions, as well as healthcare provider information exposed by a cyber security incident.
What happened?
- A MediSecure database containing personal and health information of individuals and healthcare provider information has been affected by this cyber security incident.
- The affected data relates to prescriptions distributed by MediSecure’s systems up until November 2023.
This data breach has not impacted the current national prescription delivery service.
Both paper and electronic prescriptions continue to operate as normal. People can continue to access medicines, doctors can still prescribe, and pharmacists can still dispense as usual.
People should keep accessing their medications and filling their prescriptions.
What should I be aware of as a result of this incident?
- Patients and medical professionals should be alert for scams, including those that reference the MediSecure data breach. We do not recommend responding to unsolicited contact about this matter.
- Patients and medical professionals should also be wary of any unsolicited contact purporting to be a medical or financial service provider seeking payment or banking information.
- It is recommended that if an individual receives unsolicited contact: hang up and call back on a phone number you have sourced independently.
Services Australia advises that individuals do not need to take any action related to their Pensioner Concession, Healthcare Concession, and Commonwealth Seniors cards.
Medicare card details, including numbers, individual identifiers, and expiry dates have been identified in this data breach. Please note that your Medicare account cannot be accessed with your Medicare card details alone.
Individuals can learn how to identify and protect yourself from scams by visiting:
What should I do to keep my identity safe?
- If you believe your information has been misused as a result of this incident, report this to ReportCyber at cyber.gov.au.
- We can all take simple steps to protect ourselves online, including setting up multi-factor authentication, creating strong and unique passphrases and installing software updates regularly.
More advice on protecting yourself online is available at:
Get support
ID Support NSW is a free government support service for all people in NSW to help individuals restore and protect their identity documents and personal information.
If you believe your personal information has been stolen, used, breached, or accessed without your knowledge or consent, or anyone impacted by this unfortunate event, contact ID Support NSW.
Call us
To receive personalised guidance from one of our team, call 1800 001 040. You can quickly and easily safeguard your information in around ten minutes, typically without any hold time. When you call, please have your reference number (below) ready.
Advisors are available between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday. Interpreter services are available.
OR
Visit our self-help portal
Access personalised advice at a time convenient for you by visiting our self-help portal.