2.9 Million citizens of Norway are under a potential threat of identity theft. On Monday (15th Jan) the healthcare organization called Health South-East Regional Health Authority of Norway announced the data breach of nearly half of the country’s citizens.
HelseCERT reported the Healthcare organization of suspicious behavior in the computer systems in the particular region. After conducting an investigation it is believed that the attacker had the access to 2.9 million citizens healthcare data, although it is not been confirmed that whether the data was stolen or not.
“This is a serious matter that we take seriously. We have invested considerable resources to assist the health authorities and handle the situation. For the sake of incident management, we can not at this time discuss the attack further, “says Kjetil Nilsen, Director of the National Security Authority in response to the breach.
Who was behind the data breach is not known yet, whether it was a group or an individual still remains a mystery to be solved.
“Everything indicates that it is an advanced player who has the tools and ability to perform such an attack. It can be advanced criminals,” said Kjetil Nilsen.
The Organization is still doing the investigation to get more details and proofs to make sure whether any data is been retrieved by the attacker or not.
Risks
If you are among the victims of the data breach then you may experience an Identity theft case. In such cases, an attacker will normally use all your ID details and hospital records to grab your tax returns and as well as money from your health insurer.
Staying Safe
If you are a Victim then you should monitor your all kind of accounts including your tax payments and returns. As the records contain enough data to make anyone believe that attacker is genuine.
Read about other data breaches here.