The South-West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) said it never received a demand for payment regarding a recent hacking incident.
In an update the SWRHA referred to a Trinidad Guardian article dated November 15, 2023, in which it was said a ransom demand was made on the SWRHA for the payment of US$7 million in bitcoin to regain access to the SWRHA’s data following a cybersecurity incident on October 23, 2023.
The SWRHA said:
“With certainty and clarity, the Authority advises that no such demand for payment has been received or any negotiation entered into for data retrieval.
“Even as the Authority, via a media release on October 23, 2023, promptly informed the public of the cyber security incident which compromised our ability to access real time data, sufficient data retrieval were accessed through back up manual sources, stored throughout the Authority’s several locations to enable critical patient and employee services to continue.”
The SWRHA said it continues to work with “external partner agencies” to find the “true hacker”.
“While the SWRHA continues to work assiduously with our external partner agencies to ascertain the true hacker, regain and restore full operations to our vast automated system by Monday, November 20, 2023, members of staff, the public and the national community will continue to be regularly updated as SWRHA continues to progress to full recovery.”
The SWRHA said clients and patients can contact its customer service centre at 87-SWRHA (877-9742) for healthcare-related matters.
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