Minister of Health, Moshe Arbel, responded today (Wednesday) to the hackers' threat to publish personal information and medical materials about patients at Ma'ayaney HaYeshua hospital. He revealed his own test results that he underwent last July. He emphasized that he will not comply with the attackers' demand for payment in exchange for preventing the publication of the materials.
"We haven't yielded to past attacks of extortion that were revealed in the passport queues, and we won't yield to attacks within the healthcare system," Arbel said. "Alongside my directive to allocate tens of millions of shekels in a multi-year plan to bolster cybersecurity in the healthcare system, I find it appropriate to even publicly disclose my own initiative, the results of the CT scan I underwent at Ma'ayaney HaYeshua Medical Center after undergoing a partial removal of my right kidney due to the discovery of a cancerous growth during tests for kidney donation."
"There is no room for yielding to cyber extortion and threats," he added and emphasized, "We must stand firm in safeguarding the right to privacy for every patient within the Israeli healthcare system."
As mentioned, the hackers behind the cyber attack threatened today to release personal information and medical materials about patients from the hospital currently in their possession, including the Prime Minister, Members of Knesset, religious leaders, Torah scholars, and well-known public figures within the ultra-Orthodox community. This is in case a payment of tens of millions of shekels is not received.
In response, Ma'ayaney HaYeshua Medical Center stated that "over the past week, the cybersecurity experts from the Ministry of Health, the national cyber apparatus, and the hospital have been working together to investigate the cyber attack incident, including understanding the breach and its implications. There is no negotiation with the attackers, and as reported at the beginning of the attack, this is an event driven by financial motives. Once we have more details, we will provide an update."
