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Wellington: Hackers claiming to have accessed more than 100,000 people's health records in New Zealand have reportedly extended a ransom deadline until Friday, after saying they want to build a "good reputation".
The privately owned Manage My Health platform said cybercriminals had accessed the records of six-to-seven percent of its 1.8 million users in the country.
New Zealand authorities have not named the suspects behind the data breach, discovered by Manage My Health on December 30 when it was tipped off by a "partner".
But a Telegram user named "Kazu" has claimed to have broken into more than 428,000 files on the Manage My Health platform, offering samples for download.
"Kazu" said it had demanded a ransom of US$60,000 to be paid by Tuesday morning to prevent release or sale of the files.
New Zealand daily newspaper The Post said Tuesday that the hackers had confirmed directly that the ransom deadline had been postponed to 5:00 am Friday (1600 GMT Thursday).
In an earlier Telegram post, "Kazu" said it was not a "hactivist" group with political motives.
"We know exactly how valuable health data is and how sensitive it can be," it said Sunday.
"We are doing this as a business. Our main goal is money and building a good reputation in the community."
The latest "Kazu" post on Telegram referred to the US capture of Venezuela's president, saying: "free Nicolas Maduro."
Manage My Health's portal in New Zealand stores patient medical records and personal information such as phone numbers and addresses.
The company says medical appointment and prescription information was not impacted by the breach.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the firm said it had identified all patients whose documents may have been accessed, and the first group of people had been notified.
It did not provide an update on ransom demands or the deadline.
Health Minister Simeon Brown launched a review on Monday into Manage My Health's response to the data breach.
"I know this breach will be very concerning to the many New Zealanders who use ManageMyHealth, and we need assurances around the protection and security of people's health data," Brown said.
"We must learn from this incident to avoid any repeat events in the future."
