FHM warns: The entire vaccination register may have been leaked

Published 8 March 2024 at 08.21

Domestic. The entire vaccination register – which includes, among other things, 7 million covid-vaccinated people in Sweden – may have been leaked in connection with information from the register being illegally retrieved in 2022. That assessment is made by the Public Health Authority.

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It was in July 2022 that the Public Health Authority made a police report about a suspected data breach in the national vaccination register, NVR, after a website published information about around 800 children under the age of 12 who had been vaccinated against covid-19. The authority also reported the incident to the Privacy Protection Agency (IMY).

– We can state that the prosecutor shares our assessment that we have been exposed to a criminal act, in that prosecutions have now been brought for a suspected breach of confidentiality. It is extremely serious that information covered by confidentiality has been revealed, says Bitte Bråstad, chief legal officer at the Public Health Agency, in a statement.

In connection with the investigations, more information has come to light, and the Public Health Agency is therefore making a new notification to IMY. The incident is handled as a personal data incident where FHM assesses that there is a risk that the entire NVR, as it appeared at the time, may have been disclosed. The register contains information on, among other things, all vaccinations against covid-19, i.e. personal data on approximately 7 million individuals.

– We take what happened very seriously, and we have taken a series of measures to further increase security. One must be able to trust that one's personal data is handled in a secure manner, says Bitte Bråstad.

The person who is charged was hired as an IT consultant by the Public Health Authority, via a consulting company. According to the indictment, the consultant has intentionally disclosed personal data that the consultant was obliged to keep confidential.