Australian IVF Clinic Suffers Data Breach Following Cyber Incident

Australian IVF clinic Genea has revealed that it has suffered a cyber incident, resulting in data being accessed by an unauthorized third party.

In a statement on February 19, the clinic said it is “urgently investigating” the incident to understand whether any personal information was breached.

“We sincerely apologise for any concern this incident may cause and want to reassure patients that we take your privacy and the security of your data very seriously,” the firm wrote.

Genea added that it will contact any individuals whose personal data has been found to have been compromised.

The company was first alerted to the unauthorized access after identifying suspicious activity on its network.

Steps were taken to contain the incident and secure the clinic’s systems. This included taking some of its systems and servers offline. These are now being restored while the investigation continues.

Genea has multiple clinics across Australia, serving thousands of patients. The clinic told customers that it is trying to ensure minimal disruption to services.

“If you do not hear from your local Genea clinic, there is no change to your current treatment schedule,” it commented.

On February 13, Genea informed customers that it was experiencing a phone outage across its clinics. It is currently unclear whether this outage is related to the cyber incident.

In May 2024, Australian medical prescription provider MediSecure was hit by a cyber-attack, resulting in the breach of sensitive personal and health information of around 13 million patients.

MediSecure entered voluntary administration in June 2024 after being denied a request for funding from the Commonwealth Government to assist with the costs of responding to the incident.

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