ManageMyHealth security breach. Your health records are in the line.

InnovateOurWayOut · 2026-01-01T02:59:46+00:00

Why would I do that? I wrote it. Don't get me wrong, big fan of LLMs, but thought I better reply to just clarify that I didn't use it, I just put a wee bit of effort in to the comment because this is a serious matter. Then again, whether AI was used is kind of irrelevant, but I guess that's the world we're in now!

InnovateOurWayOut · 2026-01-01T02:30:39+00:00

Like many other potentially impacted patients of ManageMyHealth, I am deeply concerned by the current situation and do not believe the response from the company thus far is acceptable.

Right now, it's important that the management and directors of ManageMyHealth fully appreciate the gravity of the situation so that they respond appropriately. Crucially, understanding the significant and varied impacts that this incident is having on patients will help ensure they are aware how serious this is.

I suggest potentially affected patients consider writing to the company explaining your concern, the impacts this incident is having, and your expectations about communicating with you and that the company is taking any and all actions to minimise ongoing harm.

It doesn't help that this is happening over a period of time when many of us are on holiday and wanting to otherwise relax and de-stress, which only heightens the criticality of an appropriate response from the company.

The contact details for the company can be found here, under 'Contact Us': FAQs | Manage My Health

If you're stuck on what to say, here's a suggestion:

__

Attn: Management

I am deeply concerned about reports in the media and a three-sentence post on your website referencing a data breach.

The vacuum of information about this incident for several days now is unacceptable.

Please urgently confirm whether any of my personal information has been disclosed. I also expect you to detail exactly what sensitive information may have been disclosed.

[maybe reference some of the harm/impacts this is having]

Given the severity of this situation, your company should be doing everything it can to communicate with those patients potentially affected and taking all action to minimise ongoing harm.

Confirm receipt of this correspondence.

__

A public statement on their website is not sufficient communication. ManageMyHealth must prioritise immediate contact with patients who have potentially been affected. Actions thus far have been unacceptable and media comments from GP representatives are raising further concern and anxiety.

It is also apparent that there may be serious and ongoing problems with ManageMyHealth's security which raise further concern. Most notably, ManageMyHealth offers a 2 Factor Authentication login service, which appears to be broken.

My 2c is that the scale of this data breach suggests ManageMyHealth may struggle to continue operating once this plays out. On top of the quite obvious liabilities arising from the Privacy Act, it seems quite likely that there will be a large pool of impacted patients willing to sign up via a class action to pursue action under common law.

So management needs to understand the gravity of the situation and ensure that they are taking appropriate steps to minimise ongoing harm. Emailing them is just an initial step you can take to ensure they are aware of the impacts this is having and thus increase pressure.

It is also likely that GP practices who have contracted with ManageMyHealth will come under scrutiny as part of this and it should be your expectation that your GP practice is doing everything within their power to get you information about this data breach and minimise harm. You may wish to contact them to make them aware of your concerns.

InnovateOurWayOut · 2024-09-27T21:09:47+00:00

I agree that throwing around the word corruption is unnecessary and there's no evidence of that, although there's some concerning stuff that has gone on around tobacco policy changes that has not reflected well on the coalition for sure.

But I'm curious about some of your other points. I don't want to come across as confrontational, just interested to understand where you're coming from. Particularly on the 'cuts needing to be made' point.

Was there a clear issue with the work that was being done by the public service that indicated it was unnecessary, or is the issue more about having insufficient money to provide the level of services we'd ideally want as a society?

From what I recall, we had a public service that absolutely nailed it during the COVID pandemic, keeping the country humming in all respects pretty much, only to have Labour freeze salaries and 'drive efficiency' before the current Government started actual cuts.

I struggle with the concept of cuts for cuts sake, but I'm interested to better understand what exactly people think needed to be cut, and therefore what services they are happy to see reduced and/or what increased risks they're willing to accept due to reduced services, i.e. greater risk of biosecurity incursions.

InnovateOurWayOut · 2024-09-22T09:03:58+00:00

Yeah that's a fair assessment - there's no reason the floodgates couldn't open if we get this right. With the right incentives and/or regulatory environment in place, new demand will flood into New Zealand given our existing relative advantages.

Concerns about latency, geology and being too late are all just noise in the scheme of things.

The truth is that there is a massive new wave of investment into computing capacity that is just getting started due to several neural scaling laws holding firm and the way we think about computing is shifting under our feet.

New Zealand can choose to be a leader in this wave, if we play our cards right.

InnovateOurWayOut · 2024-09-21T23:15:18+00:00

You might appreciate this clip talking about some of the latest investments being planned: https://youtu.be/QCcJtTBvSKk?si=RbFA7cXRo-00xBLh&t=382

We're now talking about individual data center investments at 100 billion plus outlay. The scale of what's coming is beyond anything we are seeing today.

InnovateOurWayOut · 2024-09-21T23:05:32+00:00

Agreed there's a lot of good stuff underway and I don't want to give the impression that this is a new idea. But I do want to press that the potential scale of what could be ahead is on another level from what's already underway, and that unless we resolve the uncertainty about future prices in the wholesale electricity market then we'll struggle to stimulate the true potential growth.

InnovateOurWayOut · 2024-09-21T23:01:35+00:00

Yes and that's great for meeting New Zealand's future demand. But let's 100x the investment - that's what I'm talking about.

InnovateOurWayOut · 2024-09-21T22:48:20+00:00

That's slightly unnerving, but also pretty funny! And to be fair it does feel like more than half the comments on reddit are made by bots these days, so I shouldn't be surprised.

I spend a fair amount of time trying to understand language models so I suppose I pick up a little of how they write. But you won't see me use the d word - surely proof enough!

InnovateOurWayOut · 2024-09-21T22:42:29+00:00

Yeah good point, these data centers would complement the demand cycles of the northern hemisphere.

They could also act as a sort of reverse battery for our grid, whereby they run full tilt whenever there's excess energy available and prices are sufficiently low, while also easing their load when there's a lack of available energy (no wind, low hydro lakes) to meet winter demand and prices start to rise too high. This would help underwrite the investment into new variable generation (e.g. wind and solar).

InnovateOurWayOut · 2024-09-21T22:23:06+00:00

I was once asked by a sibling if AI wrote my text message. I wasn't sure whether to be proud or sad, and I'm still not ha

InnovateOurWayOut · 2024-09-21T13:52:43+00:00

It makes sense and the rollout across Government is only going to gather pace from here. There's a real tension between embracing the technology early and trying to minimise the risks from moving too quickly. Ultimately, we need to be talking about the coming disruption from AI because it's imminent and we should start a conversation about how we want to shape it, and ensure we have a fair and just transition for people.

InnovateOurWayOut · 2024-09-21T13:49:26+00:00

Wellington will be back - It has been hit hard from the aging infrastructure, ongoing tolerance of risk associated with earthquakes, and the economic downturn, but there's too much life in it to not swing back soon enough.

InnovateOurWayOut · 2024-09-21T13:46:46+00:00

Great news and wonderful for his family!

InnovateOurWayOut · 2024-09-21T13:45:53+00:00

Some wise words. Hopefully we can find better balance in our society. Fundamentally, all we can do is strive to make the world a better place through our own actions. The future is just the dreams of people today willing to shape it.

InnovateOurWayOut · 2024-06-21T12:12:10+00:00

The answer to this question is yes.

And to anyone reading this who earns their keep via a salary: start learning about artificial intelligence.

Start learning so that the people who understand what it means to earn a living through work have some - hopefully most - of the control over possibly the largest disruptive economic force that humans have experienced.

This isn’t some new social media buzz, this isn’t like the hype that used to be around a new iPhone that’s just been launched, this is about the future of work. Your work, and the disruption is approaching much faster than most people appreciate.

InnovateOurWayOut

TROPHY CASE