Privacy Breach Notification – April 2021
We recently experienced a privacy breach that may involve personal information. Our reception email account was illegally accessed by an unknown and unauthorised third party, which resulted in personal information from within those emails being accessed. Some of our patients and contacts received suspicious emails and may be sent emails containing viruses within attachments, or with malicious links.
What does this mean?
At this stage, we understand that personal information, potentially including health information for referral patients, and any other information contained on emails within that email account, may have been compromised. We are undertaking an extensive investigation to determine the full extent of the information accessed.
What we’re doing about it
We take this privacy breach extremely seriously and are incredibly disappointed about this incident. As soon as we became aware of what happened, we engaged with our third-party cybersecurity providers to assist with a full forensic investigation. We are also in the process of reviewing all our systems and procedures to prevent an incident of this nature from reoccurring.
What you need to do
If you are a patient of ours or a referring dentist, we strongly advise you follow these guidelines, to reduce the risk of potential harm:
- Please avoid clicking on any links or open any emails that appear to come from “Reception” or “RJ Begg” but have a suspicious email address. For example, info@chocolatechildren.com.
- Ignore any unexpected invoices and do not follow instructions to make any unusual payments to RJ Begg & Associates.
- Do not open any suspicious email attachments or click on any links within unknown emails.
- Remain on alert to any unusual emails that claim to be from us (phishing emails).
We respect that the privacy of your information is paramount, which is why we wanted to let you know as soon as possible. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
We have notified the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner of this incident. If you are not happy with our response, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner to lodge a complaint. You have the right to do this under the Privacy Act 2020.
Still have questions?
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@rjbegg.co.nz.
Yours sincerely,
Bob Begg