Major medical research centre caught up in data breach

QIMR Berghofer director and chief executive Fabienne Mackay said they believed the data accessed was related to anti-malarial drug trials.

“Looking at [the data potentially accessed] we did find clinical trial files. Fortunately these files are totally de-indentified,” Professor Mackay said

“We don’t believe that any of the information in Accellion could be used to identify any of these participants, but nonetheless, I want to apologise sincerely that some of their de-identified information could potentially have been accessed.”

The drug trial data includes de-identified patient data such as date of birth, age, gender, and ethnic group of clinical trial participants.

The breach of QIMR’s data is believed to have occurred on…