The lab at the centre of a major leak of personal data paid an undisclosed sum to ransomware group Nova, RTL Nieuws reported.

Earlier this week, it emerged that hackers accessed the personal data of almost 500,000 women who participated in mass screenings for cervical cancer at test processing lab Clinical Diagnostics in Rijswijk in early July.

The data breach also included the test results of patients at LeidenUMC, the Amphia hospital and Alrijne hospital, dating back to 2022.

The data of some 53,000 patients were offered up for sale on the dark web, potentially opening them up to targeted phishing mails and other types of fraud.

The lab, which didn’t inform its clients until last week, said it the delay was due to  “measures” which it didn’t specify at the time. Privacy rules require organisations to report a breach of confidential data within 24 hours.

The delay appears to be linked to the payment of a certain sum to prevent more data from appearing on the dark web. The group reportedly demanded “millions” in ransom but it is unclear how much was paid.