Hackers steal cervical cancer data of almost 500,000 women in Netherlands
The information was with a clinical laboratory paid to analyse the data, the Dutch population screening bureau said.
The data, which covers a period from 2022 to this year, included names, addresses, dates of birth and social security numbers of the women as well as detailed test results and follow-on medical advice from doctors.
The information was stolen from Clinical Diagnostics, a lab in Rijswijk, near The Hague, early last month, the screening bureau said.
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However, the patients and the bureau itself were only alerted last week.
The bureau, Bevolkingsonderzoek Nederland, reacted angrily to that delay, saying it was 'shocking and reprehensible' that the 485,000 women who needed to know immediately were only now being told by letter.
Under European Union data protection regulations known as GDPR, institutions are obliged to inform those directly affected, as well as the data protection authorities, within 24 hours of becoming aware of a data breach.
Clinical Diagnostics tried to explain the delay by saying it wanted to make sure it 'took the right steps' in the aftermath.
Despite that, the screening bureau has suspended all dealings with the clinic – one of six specialising in clinical chemistry, medical microbiology, molecular diagnostics and genomics in the Netherlands – until it receives a guarantee that new tests can be processed securely.
The bureau's national chair, Elza den Hertog, went on TV to apologise and to try to reassure the public, describing the theft of data as 'a nightmare scenario' – particularly since her organisation had been campaigning hard to persuade woman to take the cervical screening test.
'We were getting there with our campaign', she said.
'But now these women's data is in the hands of criminal third parties. We are extremely sorry about that.'
Caretaker health minister Danielle Jansen has ordered an independent investigation.
As she did so, however, it emerged that scale of the intrusion could be worst than first feared.
Data relating to tests on other tissue samples and on urine, carried out at hospitals such as Leiden University Medical Centre and Alrijne and Amphia hospitals, has also been stolen.
In addition, Z-Cert, the healthcare cybersecurity centre, said it had already found data from Clinical Diagnostics on the 'dark web', a hidden part of the internet that requires specific software to access.
A total of 100 megabytes of the 300 gigabytes of data stolen has been posted there to date – the equivalent of the data of about 53,516 patients.
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Irish Times
2 days ago
- Irish Times
Hackers steal cervical cancer data of almost 500,000 women in Netherlands
Hackers have stolen the medical data of almost 500,000 women who took part in mass screening for cervical cancer in the Netherlands. The information was with a clinical laboratory paid to analyse the data, the Dutch population screening bureau said. The data, which covers a period from 2022 to this year, included names, addresses, dates of birth and social security numbers of the women as well as detailed test results and follow-on medical advice from doctors. The information was stolen from Clinical Diagnostics, a lab in Rijswijk, near The Hague, early last month, the screening bureau said. READ MORE However, the patients and the bureau itself were only alerted last week. The bureau, Bevolkingsonderzoek Nederland, reacted angrily to that delay, saying it was 'shocking and reprehensible' that the 485,000 women who needed to know immediately were only now being told by letter. Under European Union data protection regulations known as GDPR, institutions are obliged to inform those directly affected, as well as the data protection authorities, within 24 hours of becoming aware of a data breach. Clinical Diagnostics tried to explain the delay by saying it wanted to make sure it 'took the right steps' in the aftermath. Despite that, the screening bureau has suspended all dealings with the clinic – one of six specialising in clinical chemistry, medical microbiology, molecular diagnostics and genomics in the Netherlands – until it receives a guarantee that new tests can be processed securely. The bureau's national chair, Elza den Hertog, went on TV to apologise and to try to reassure the public, describing the theft of data as 'a nightmare scenario' – particularly since her organisation had been campaigning hard to persuade woman to take the cervical screening test. 'We were getting there with our campaign', she said. 'But now these women's data is in the hands of criminal third parties. We are extremely sorry about that.' Caretaker health minister Danielle Jansen has ordered an independent investigation. As she did so, however, it emerged that scale of the intrusion could be worst than first feared. Data relating to tests on other tissue samples and on urine, carried out at hospitals such as Leiden University Medical Centre and Alrijne and Amphia hospitals, has also been stolen. In addition, Z-Cert, the healthcare cybersecurity centre, said it had already found data from Clinical Diagnostics on the 'dark web', a hidden part of the internet that requires specific software to access. A total of 100 megabytes of the 300 gigabytes of data stolen has been posted there to date – the equivalent of the data of about 53,516 patients.
Irish Times
25-06-2025
- Irish Times
Woman (54) with terminal cervical cancer settles case over smear tests
A 54-year-old woman who has terminal cervical cancer has settled a High Court action against the HSE and a US laboratory over the alleged misinterpretation of smear tests. The action related to five smear tests taken between 2011 and 2018. Her senior counsel, Patrick Treacy, instructed by Cian O'Carroll solicitors, told the court on Wednesday that the case had been resolved after mediation this week. The settlement against the HSE and the US laboratory Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, with an address in New Jersey, is without an admission of liability. READ MORE In the proceedings it was claimed that as a result of alleged delay, the woman lost the opportunity of cure, her life expectancy has been severely impaired and her enjoyment of life has been catastrophically damaged. It was claimed her cancer had been allegedly allowed to develop and spread unidentified, unmonitored and untreated until she was ultimately diagnosed following her attendance at a hospital emergency department in late 2024. It was claimed that the woman had a smear test under the CervicalCheck screening programme in February 2011 and the report showed a lesion, and a procedure was arranged with a follow smear arranged for six months later. She had another smear test in December 2011 which came back as negative, and also in June 2012, which was also negative. At the end of December 2013, it was claimed the woman had another smear test and cells of uncertain significance were detected, and a referral was made to a colposcopy clinic. A further smear test in October 2014 came back as negative, and the woman also had a smear test in August 2018, which was returned as negative. She became unwell on holiday last year and on her return home she was referred for review, where an MRI scan showed a cervical tumour, and she began chemotherapy. It was claimed that had any of the five smear tests been correctly reported, there would have been a different approach to her care and she would have been advised to undergo a hysterectomy. It was contended that on the balance of probabilities, her high grade pre-cancer would have been cured and it would not have developed into advanced cancer lesion requiring intensive palliative chemotherapy. All of the claims were denied. Noting the settlement, Mr Justice Paul Coffey said he was delighted to hear the case had been resolved.
Irish Times
10-06-2025
- Irish Times
Why is Irish media so reticent about covering gender issues?
The phrase 'third rail' was originally coined to describe the electrified line that runs alongside train tracks, deadly to the touch. In politics and public discourse, it has come to signify any subject deemed too dangerous, too radioactive, too fraught to approach. And while journalism in a liberal democracy is, in theory, about touching all the rails – especially the live ones – theory and practice often diverge. Last week, the New York Times published all six episodes of The Protocol , a podcast series that represents a significant moment in the polarised US debate around youth transgender healthcare. The series explores how the standardised medical approach to gender transition in minors was developed in the Netherlands in the 1990s. Known as the 'Dutch protocol', the model recommends the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapy for carefully assessed adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria. That protocol was later exported, adapted – and contested – elsewhere, including in the United Kingdom and United States, where culture war battle lines have long since been drawn. The New York Times podcast tells a story of shifting medical consensus, political pressure, and institutional confusion. But it also carries a subtext about journalism itself – how hard it can be for newsrooms to report accurately and fairly on an issue that cuts so close to the cultural bone. READ MORE It's worth noting that the New York Times has not emerged from this process unscathed. Over the past few years, its coverage of trans issues has prompted significant internal dissent. A 2022 feature by journalist Emily Bazelon questioning aspects of the prevailing medical model and an article by Katie Baker in 2023 titled, When Students Change Gender Identity and Parents Don't Know sparked public protests, petitions signed by some of the paper's reporters, and an open letter from celebrities and activists accusing the newspaper of platforming 'anti-trans bigotry'. Senior editors responded with unusually sharp criticism of their staff, insisting that journalism 'cannot exist in service of any cause'. The Protocol feels, in part, like an attempt to reset. Bazelon is credited as an adviser on the podcast. The editorial tone is serious, sober, and almost anxious in its caution. There are no polemics. But the very act of producing it – at scale, with resources and rigour – feels like a line being drawn: a claim that this subject, however charged, can and should be reported on without fear or favour. How to manage your pension in these volatile times Listen | 37:00 Which brings us to this side of the Atlantic. In the same week The Protocol dropped, Irish psychotherapist Stella O'Malley published a blog post recounting her own experience with Irish media. O'Malley, a founder of the organisation Genspect, is sharply critical in the post and in an interview on the State of Us podcast , of what she describes as the effective blacklisting of dissenting voices on the issue of youth transition by Irish media, including The Irish Times. 'In Ireland,' she writes, 'cancel culture doesn't burn you at the stake – it quietly leaves you out in the cold'. O'Malley is particularly scathing about RTÉ, where, until 2021, she had been a regular contributor to national discussions on youth mental health. Since then, she says, her media invitations have dried up. She cites the Irish media's lack of coverage on key developments abroad, such as the closure of the Tavistock gender clinic in London following the Cass Review, or the recent UK Supreme Court ruling that sex, not gender identity, should be the basis of protections under equality law, as evidence of what she characterises as a systemic avoidance of uncomfortable facts. Of course, O'Malley is now an activist with a clear ideological stance, and reasonable people can disagree with her conclusions or question her affiliations. But if activism were a barrier to participation in Irish current affairs programmes, there would be an awful lot of silence on our airwaves. What seems harder to deny is that, in her case and others, views that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy on gender identity are seen as beyond the pale. This may explain a striking media gap. The Cass Review in the UK, a years-long, evidence-based review of youth gender services led by a respected paediatrician, concluded that the medical model developed in the Netherlands and exported widely was, in many cases, being applied without sufficient clinical oversight. It led directly to the suspension of all routine prescription of puberty blockers to under-18s in the National Health Service. The Irish media coverage of this was scant, scattered and mostly relegated to the opinion pages, even though it had a direct impact on the treatment of Irish children, or that the largest political party on the island, Sinn Féin, was forced into policy contortions on either side of the Border as a result. Why the reticence? There is a commonly heard view that to even enter this debate is to engage in a 'toxic' discourse imported from Britain and the US – best avoided in a mature, progressive society. But this is an odd position, especially in a media culture that otherwise shows little hesitation in following every twist and turn of UK and US affairs, from the post-Brexit travails of the Conservative party to the power struggles within the Trump White House. The truth may be simpler and more uncomfortable. Irish journalism, like Irish society, is small. The circles are tight. The cost of stepping on the wrong third rail – socially, professionally, reputationally – is high. Better, perhaps, to look away. And yet the issues are not going away. Ireland, like every other country, is grappling with questions of medical ethics, consent, identity, and law. Young people experiencing gender distress deserve compassionate, evidence-based care. But they also deserve a society willing to discuss that care honestly. And journalists, if they are doing their jobs, have to be part of that conversation, even when it's difficult.
