Shadow Minister for Public Sector Integrity and Performance Tjorn Sibma has called for Minister Dave Kelly to stand down after a shocking privacy breach led to the release online of confidential medical details of scores of West Australians.
“It is staggering that in 2020 in the middle of a COVID-19 pandemic that the McGowan Labor Government is still using such an antiquated paging system that is unsecure,” Mr Sibma said.
“This breach of confidential data was completely avoidable and is totally unacceptable. The fact that the alleged hacker was under 16 should concern every West Australian.
“Vodafone have said they warned the government about the vulnerability of the system they were using and recommended upgrading to a more secure system, but yet again the Minister responsible, Dave Kelly, was asleep at the wheel and ignored these warnings.
“It is not good enough that nearly 24 hours after this story broke that the Premier still does not know whether red flags had been raised.
“The result is that West Australian citizens have had private, sensitive medical information published online. The horse has bolted. We are talking about people’s names, addresses, phone numbers and confidential medical information being posted online.
“The public has every right to be outraged and needs to be reassured that this has been fixed.
“Mr Kelly should stand down. It beggars belief in this day and age where hacking is rife that the McGowan Labor Government would not be using the most secure technology available.”