The Swedish Health Agency shuts down its infectious disease database, named SmiNet after it was targeted in a series of hacking attempts.
- The country’s infectious diseases database, SmiNet, was forced to shut down on Thursday after it was targeted in several hacking attempts.
- It is unclear if the attackers had access to sensitive data.
- The Swedish Public Health Agency could not report complete COVID-19 stats to the database shut down.
The Swedish Health Agency shuts down its infectious disease database, named SmiNet after it was targeted in a series of hacking attempts.
“The Swedish Public Health Agency has discovered that there have been several attempted intrusions into the SmiNet database. The database has therefore been closed down temporarily,” reads the report disclosed by the Agency.
SmiNet is used to store electronic reports of COVID-19 infections subject to notification following the Communicable Diseases Act.
The Swedish Public Health Agency could not report complete COVID-19 stats starting from Wednesday at 4 PM due to the database shut down.
While there is no evidence of unauthorised parties accessing sensitive information was found so far. The incident has been reported to the Police and Privacy Protection Authority.
According to the press release published by the Agency, more time is needed to ensure that the statistics are complete so that a reliable assessment of the epidemiological situation can be made. Therefore, the following update of the statistics on cases of COVID-19 will be on June 3. Data from laboratories and care providers are then estimated to have been reported and analysed. “The investigation into unauthorised access to sensitive information is still ongoing.”
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