The health portal is New Zealand's biggest and used by general practices to relay information and dispatch subscriptions. Hackers are threatening to release 400,000 files from 120,000 patients, if the health portal does not pay a $US60,000 ($NZ103,000) ransom. "The Health (Retention of Health Information) Regulations 1996 say that health agencies must keep any health records they hold for a patient for 10 years from the last time they provided services to that patient. It would also inform practices that no longer use Manage My Health and was working on notifying affected patients. Manage My Health would also establish an 0800 helpline for affected patients, it said.

Source: Otago Daily Times January 07, 2026 11:50 UTC