Genea, a leading IVF provider in Australia, experienced a cybersecurity breach that interrupted patient services and may have compromised sensitive information.
Genea, one of the country’s three largest IVF services with 21 clinics nationwide, confirmed the incident on its website on Wednesday. This disclosure occurred after the national broadcaster, ABC, contacted the company regarding the cyberattack. Following the inquiry from ABC, Genea enlisted the assistance of Porter Novelli, a public relations firm specializing in managing corporate responses to cyberattacks and data breaches.
Lauren Clancy, representing Genea through Porter Novelli, verified the incident to TechCrunch, stating via email that the company is actively investigating the cybersecurity issue. The spokesperson emphasized that immediate steps were taken to contain and secure their systems once the incident was detected, with efforts underway to minimize disruptions to patient treatments.
Genea acknowledged in a public statement that the hacker involved had accessed company data but declined to specify the nature of the data when questioned by TechCrunch. Prior to confirming the cyberattack, Genea had notified customers on February 13 about outages in their phone lines, according to a post viewed by TechCrunch on Genea’s Instagram page.
The breach also affected the MyGenea app, which is used by patients to monitor their cycles and view fertility data, resulting in it being taken offline, as reported by ABC.
Genea’s website outlines that the company collects highly sensitive health information, including medical, nursing, and scientific data, as well as details of procedures and tests conducted at Genea or elsewhere. It remains unclear whether this sensitive medical data was accessed or extracted during the breach.
Genea’s representative stated, “Our investigation is ongoing, and we will communicate with any affected individuals if our investigation identifies any evidence that their personal information has been impacted, consistent with our legal and regulatory obligations,” according to a statement given to TechCrunch.
