Financial Review - Health’s ‘naked’ data at more risk than ever

This article features Marc Beder, General Manager, APAC, 11:11 Systems

With data too lucrative to resist, health service providers were - as usual - the most hacked organisations in 2025. Now, tech departments are trying to get ahead of a new generation of autonomous robots that criminals are using to find and exploit patients' unprotected information.

Health accounted for 19 per cent of data breaches reported to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner in 2025, the year with the highest number of breaches since mandatory reporting started in 2018.

Although artificial intelligence has not yet been identified as a major cause of data breaches, OAIC research found Australians have low levels of trust in AI.

"An overwhelming majority want stronger safeguards and transparency," says privacy commissioner Carly Kind.

Health businesses are often targeted by hackers because the information they keep about patients is valuable when sold on the dark web.

Sydney University associate professor Qiang Tang says the number of breaches is probably a lot higher than official figures and patient information is only weakly protected.

"I'm not claiming the situation is unbearable, but it's definitely not looking good. [Once a hacker enters a network] the data is essentially naked … from the server to the processing parties to the hosting parties to the storage servers," Tang says.

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