The Biggest Cyberattack in New Zealand's History Unfolding

With computer system and phone lines down, Waikoto Hospital has to resorts to pen and paper procedures

New Zealand's Waikato Hospital is facing a second week of interruption as it works to repair its computer infrastructure after a massive cyberattack. With computers and phone lines knocked out, the attacker remains unknown.

According to Kevin Snee, chief executive of Waikato District Health Board (DHB) the hospital's cyberattack is "probably the biggest cyber-attack in New Zealand's history".

He also stated on Monday to RNZ’s Morning Report, that he expects about 20% of elective surgeries and outpatient clinic appointments to be canceled at Waikato hospital this week. Furthermore, the DHB’s IT systems will be fully operational next week.

“We’re a very complex system and this has proved more complex to address than was first thought,” he said. “We also have to be careful in … addressing the problem that when we stand up the system, it doesn’t run into problems again”.

The identity of the attacker is still unknown. Nevertheless, it is massive as it affected the computer system, crashed phone lines and lead to errors in the hospital's payroll system. Some hypothesis are that it may be related to the ransomware attack on Ireland's state health care provider earlier this month. Last week, Snee said that the DHB would decline any ransom payment.

The governor of New Zealand's reserve bank has apologized for the cyberattack

The DHB, that operates five hospital sites in Hamilton, south of Auckland, and serves over 425,000 people, was forced to use manual systems to continue treating patients.

In a statement issued on Monday, Snee claimed that pay issues had been resolved as soon as the DHB was made aware of them. However, those measures have been taken to ensure that this week's salary, which will be distributed on Wednesday.

The DHB said it had treated demand well over the weekend and that strong progress was made in bringing networks back online. Still, patients are advised to avoid going to emergency rooms unless absolutely necessary,

Currently they are following a recovery phase, that includes re-booking patients whose appointments were rescheduled, as well as a method for manually entering patient details into its databases.