Cyber Incident Victim: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry
Date:
Feb 2025
Location:
Australia
Summary
The Australianand New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry website was temporarily deactivated following a cyber security breach. The hosting institution notified affected user accounts by email, providing details about the incident and outlining any required actions. As a result, functions such as registering new trials, updating existing trial information, and modifying user account details remain unavailable until the service is restored.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 0 motives | 1 technique |
| Threat Actors | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 0 actors | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
The Australianand New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) website, which is hosted by the University of Sydney, was temporarily deactivated after a cyber security breach was discovered. The breach prompted the University of Sydney to notify affected user accounts via email on Friday, 28 February 2025. In that email, the university provided additional information about the incident and outlined any actions that affected users needed to take. The notification was part of the institution's response to the security event. As a result of the breach, the ANZCTR platform is currently unable to accept new registrations, updates to existing trial details, or changes to user account information. Users attempting to perform these functions are met with a notice that the services are unavailable until further notice. The University of Sydney has stated that it is working to restore full functionality and will communicate any available timeframes for resumption of services on the website once they are determined. The disruption has affected researchers and sponsors who rely on the registry for trial registration and updates.
The University of Sydney expressed regret for the inconvenience caused by the outage and apologized to the affected community. No further details about the nature of the breach, the attacker's actions, or specific data compromised have been disclosed in the available source material. The institution indicated that updates regarding the restoration timeline will be posted on the ANZCTR website as soon as they become available.