During the previous month, we have been seeing news about cyber-attacks on hospitals, especially a significant attack which affected hospitals in the Gippsland and South West regions of Victoria. The attack led to some of the hospitals, including Barwon Health to cancel some elective surgery and appointments. We monitor these events closely and take them very seriously.

A couple of days ago, we have received important information from DHHS via the Victorian Government Cyber Incident Response Service (CIRS) that Victorian Government organisations are being targeted in phishing campaigns attempting to deploy malware known as Emotet.

The organisations impacted reported receiving phishing emails containing malicious Microsoft Word documents. The Microsoft Word documents contain a macro which, when enabled, downloads Emotet malware to the user’s device. If you see a suspicious document, please let us know.

We have also been alerted by the Australian Cyber Security Centre on Scam Text messages on phones targeting Australia Post Customers. The widespread scam text messages are telling customers there are problems delivering a package, or that a parcel won’t be delivered “due to unverified shipping address.” Please make sure you never click on links which ask for your personal information.

At Northern Health, we have a number of systems in place to protect ourselves from potential cyber security attacks, but we also need you to be vigilant! Your email is the most likely entrance for such attacks.

I would like to personally assure everyone that we are taking all precautions to prevent malware entering into the Northern Health network and are monitoring for any malicious traffic.

Should you identify any suspicious links, emails or documents, please contact the ICT team at ServiceHUB@nh.org.au or ext 52222.

David Ryan

Chief Information Officer