A day after Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, last week assured South Africans cyber security was “receiving the necessary attention” a second incident with potentially far-reaching implications was made public.

Ntshavheni was reacting to so-called “revelations” of at least R300 million lost to cyber theft at the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) over a 10 year period. In a statement she said a State Security Agency (SSA) investigation was ongoing with continuing support and advice to government departments on cyber security.

Next in line for SSA attention in this regard, according to Democratic Alliance (DA) Portfolio Health Committee member, Michelle Clarke, should be the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), a Department of Health (DoH) entity.

It assists with communicable diseases, occupational health and cancer surveillance in addition to providing diagnostic pathology services. It has specialised institutes including the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), which includes the National Cancer Registry (NCR), National Institute for Occupational Health (NIOH), Forensic Chemistry Laboratories (FCL) and SA Vaccine Producers Association (SAVP). NHLS has laboratories in all nine provinces and is seen as a critical component of South African government healthcare.

A cyber-attack on NHLS, Clarke said, “rendered critical data unusable, significantly disrupting delivery of essential health services”.

Unlike the DPWI allegations, where money was uppermost in the cyber thieves’ minds, the NHLS attack could be life threatening in certain instances.

The attack, attributed to a group going by the name BlackSuit, affects issuing of test results to clinicians. This delay, Clarke said, especially for life-threatening conditions such as TB and HIV, can have dire consequences for patients.

The NHLS has implemented alternative measures, including a critical test list to manage the workload and ensure urgent tests are prioritised. “However, routine tests are still being performed, albeit under strained conditions. The development of an electronic registration system for new samples and test results is a positive step, but the current manual communication of urgent results is not a sustainable solution,” Clarke said.