Australians shouldn't rush to change their Medicare cards in the wake of the MediSecure data breach, and there's no evidence to suggest current prescriptions have been impacted, according to the federal government.
The investigation into the "large scale" incident is still in its early stages, National Cyber Security Coordinator Lieutenant-General Michelle McGuinness, said in an update this morning.
She said there was nothing to suggest Medicare cards need to be replaced or that there's a heightened threat to other health providers.
"From the information that is currently available to the government, no current e-prescriptions have been impacted or accessed," McGuinness said.
"The Department of Health has confirmed there has been no impact to the e-prescription services currently in use.
"On the basis of technical advice from MediSecure to date, the original compromise has been isolated and there is no evidence to suggest an increased cyber threat to the medical sector.
"We are looking closely at any evidence about whether identity documents have been compromised in the breach, and are working with MediSecure, Services Australia, and state and territory credential-issuing bodies to build a full picture of the impacted dataset.
"We have not seen evidence so far to suggest that anyone needs to replace their Medicare card.
"If our investigation turns up any evidence to suggest Australians' identities are at risk and they need to replace their documents, we will let them know."
Exactly how many people have been caught up in the breach on the e-prescription provider remains unknown, but McGuinness said affected patients would be told what they need to do once the investigation had progressed.
"We are still working to build a picture of the size and nature of the data that has been impacted by this data breach impacting MediSecure," she said.
"This discovery work often takes time and I understand Australians are anxious about the possibility of their personal information being affected.
"I want to assure everyone that we are working as fast as we can to complete our assessment and when we have further information to share about what has been impacted, we will share this with you – along with what affected people may need to do to protect themselves."
