UnitingCare Queensland hit by major cyber attack

A number of hospitals and aged care homes have been hit by a cyber attack with services impacted after internal IT systems were taken down.

UnitingCare Queensland said in a statement it was impacted by a cyber incident on Sunday, leaving some of the organisation’s digital and technology systems inaccessible including internal staff emails. 

The healthcare provider runs The Wesley Hospital in Auchenflower and St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital in Spring Hill as well as dozens of aged care and disability services across Queensland. 

The Wesley Hospital in Auchenflower, Brisbane (pictured) has been caught up in a cyber attack that hit UnitingCare Queensland 

Some services are now being ‘redirected or rescheduled’ as a result of the cyber attack, with staff forced to resort to manual processes to keep the remaining operations running.   

‘As soon as we became aware of the incident, we engaged the support of lead external technical and forensic advisors,’ UnitingCare Queensland said. 

‘We also notified the Australian Cyber Security Centre of the incident and are continuing to work with them to investigate the incident.

‘Where necessary, manual back-up processes are now in place to ensure continuity of most services. Where manual processes cannot be implemented, services are being redirected or rescheduled accordingly.’ 

UnitingCare Queensland said it was unable to put a timeline on when services will be fully restored, with doctors reportedly told they may not be able to access patient information. 

‘We are committed to keeping our people, patients, clients and residents informed and safe as we work to resolve this incident and will provide further relevant updates as new information comes to hand,’ the organisation said. 

St Andrews War Memorial Hospital (pictured) in Spring Hill, Brisbane, which is also run by UnitingCare Queensland, was impacted by the cyber attack