Health New Zealand has started the process of notifying individuals impacted by the alleged unauthorised data release by a former staff member.
"We deeply regret what happened and apologise sincerely to those affected. We are making information, advice and support available to individuals being notified," said Margie Apa, Chief Executive Health New Zealand.
The first group we are contacting is a large number of COVID 19 vaccinators whose personal information was in a downloadable file on a United States based blogsite. As soon as we found out about this, we asked for the information to be removed. It was later taken down.
There is also a small group of vaccinated people who, through the use of considerable effort and technical expertise, could potentially be identified within information earlier made publicly available.
"We have vigorously pursued legal avenues to have the data removed in line with Employment Relations Authority orders that prohibit the sharing or public release of data from the unauthorised disclosure.
"We will do this wherever we become aware of further unauthorised use or disclosure," said Apa.
Health NZ is cooperating with Police and working closely with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
This is a highly complex situation, and the investigation is ongoing.
"We are working with local and international cyber security experts to assist and monitor for signs of the data being disclosed online," concluded Apa.
To date around 12,000 people have been identified who need to be individually located and notified and this number may rise and take some time to work through.
Health NZ is committed to learning from incidents of this nature, with improving internal controls and strengthening data security measures to help prevent something like this happening again.
The misinformation about vaccines put into the public arena in relation to the alleged unauthorised data release is completely wrong. Vaccines remain safe. The role played by vaccinators during the pandemic was invaluable and helped to keep communities safe and save lives.
