A digital medical records data company has been taken offline after some patient records were modified.
Some users' information had been changed, including to say they were deceased.
MediMap is used by some health providers in aged care, disability, hospice and the community to accurately record medication doses.
It allows clinics or aged care services to coordinate with people and pharmacies, and can be used for e-prescribing and includes people's medication histories.
Information sent to clinics from the company said the problem began about 1.30pm on Sunday.
A notification on the company's website says the company is investigating the scope of the impact and will remain offline while this happens.
MediMap issued a response to RNZ saying it had identified "unauthorised entry" and involved names, dates of birth, prescribers, location of care and resident status.
The platform was being helped by the Ministry of Health, it said.
"As soon as we became aware of the issue, we engaged specialist external cyber experts and placed the platform into maintenance mode as a precautionary measure to protect patient safety. Our focus is on helping facilities to provide continuation of care, and then on remediation and safe restoration," MediMap director Geoffrey Sayer said.
"Customers have reverted to their standard alternative manual processes to ensure patients continue to receive the required levels of care they should expect."
Sayer said the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and NZ Police had also been notified.
"We are continuing to investigate the impact on patient data while implementing a safe restoration pathway," Sayer said.
"We are committed to keeping our all our customers and stakeholders informed as our investigation progresses and will continue to provide updates via our website.
"We understand our platform is critical to aged care and healthcare across New Zealand, and we sincerely apologise for the disruption and concern this situation has caused."
The Aged Care Association said as many as 60% of aged care facilities could be using the app.
Those who did had to switch to paper-based processes.
In an email to health providers, Medimap said the app would remain offline while it investigated and carried out "data integrity checks."
That would allow them to provide clearer guidance on how they would resolve the problem and how long that would taKe.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he was aware of the MediMap breach.
"It's concerning, particularly when it follows Manage My Health. It's a reason for why I've been advocating very strongly that we need to strengthen our cybersecurity laws here in New Zealand and also make sure that we're not laid back," Luxon told reporters.
It comes almost two months after privately owned patient portal Manage My Health was caught up in a privacy breach.
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