{"id":220238,"date":"2026-01-06T20:59:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T20:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/220238\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T20:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T20:59:17","slug":"cooks-niue-say-data-secure-after-nz-hack-but-independent-niue-users-could-be-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/220238\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooks, Niue say data secure after NZ hack but independent Niue users could be at risk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JV8FCI_Media_1_jpg.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"787\" alt=\"ManageMyHealth, Manage My Health generic images\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\n<p>Photo: RNZ \/ Finn Blackwell\n<\/p>\n<p>Health authorities in the Cook Islands and Niue say their clinical health data is secure following a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/political\/583170\/managemyhealth-breach-patients-at-risk-of-identity-theft-extortion-experts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">major cyber breach of the ManageMyHealth patient portal<\/a> in New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>The incident <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/national\/582969\/managemyhealth-confirms-cyber-breach\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was reported on 31 December in Aotearoa<\/a>, with hackers threatening to release personal health data unless a ransom is paid.<\/p>\n<p>In the Cook Islands, Te Marae Ora Ministry of Health detected an attempt to hack local data, but it was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n<p>Health secretary Bob Williams told CITV News &#8220;the data remains secure&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The ManageMyHealth patient portal was launched in the Cook Islands in April last year and is used by some GP clinics to store and manage patient information.<\/p>\n<p>In Niue, the Department of Health issued a community advisory stating they have not detected a breach of any internal clinical records.<\/p>\n<p>The ManageMyHealth application is not used by the Department of Health, but they do use its partner Medtech for internal systems.<\/p>\n<p>However, officials warned that Niue residents who have independently registered with the ManageMyHealth app could be affected.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Although there is a low-risk impact on our community regarding the above breach in NZ, we are aware the there are some in our community that are registered and use the app,&#8221; the health department said.<\/p>\n<p>The director of health, Minerva Ikimau-McCurdy encouraged patients who use the app to stay informed as investigations continue in New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you are registered and use the ManageMyHealth app, please note that some of your information therein could potentially be affected.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Authorities in both countries said they will continue to provide updates locally as investigations continue.<\/p>\n<p>The operators of New Zealand&#8217;s ManageMyHealth say they have received &#8220;independent confirmation&#8221; from IT experts <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/national\/583112\/managemyhealth-says-code-fixed-security-tightened-after-hack\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the flaws in its code have been fixed<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: RNZ \/ Finn Blackwell Health authorities in the Cook Islands and Niue say their clinical health data&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-220238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}