HIFRNM denies: health and personal data are completely secure and have not been stolen; citizens should remain calm

In order to protect the public from speculation, over the past few days the Health Insurance Fund of the Republic of North Macedonia has informed the public fully transparently and regularly about the cyber attack it faced. The Fund is doing this continuously as the facts are established, and will continue to do so with the aim of providing complete and precise information about the situation.

As was publicly announced, with the assistance of the team of local and foreign experts, work is being carried out to restore the Fund’s system in order to return it to its original form, after some of the functions were locked. 

The expert team working on the solutions points out that there is no single and unique way to overcome the challenges caused by a given cyber attack, regardless of what type it is, and precisely for that reason, the domestic and foreign teams need more time to overcome the damage caused by the attack.

In this regard, we strongly deny the allegations that citizens’ data have been stolen. The Health Insurance Fund assures the public that citizens’ health and personal data are completely secure and that citizens should remain calm.

As we informed the public from the very beginning, during the cyber attack there was no leakage of data outside the Fund’s databases. This was confirmed by the analysis of the expert technical teams. Therefore, we are firm that the data of users of health services, including personal data, are secure and protected and there has been no unauthorised downloading of personal data.

At present, the application solutions/software and databases are isolated from the part of the system that was the subject of the attack, and all activities for cleaning and checking the entire system of the Health Insurance Fund are being finalised in order to secure the conditions for reconnection to normal operating mode.

At the same time, we strongly deny the allegations that the Fund’s associates did not work in accordance with the procedures by which the Fund’s data are secured. All our associates and all those involved in finding solutions to the challenges arising from the cyber attack have many years of experience, are reputable stakeholders in their fields, and we consider it inappropriate to call into question their knowledge and expertise and to damage their reputation. On this occasion, the Fund expresses gratitude for the dedicated work of all technical teams that work daily and with commitment.