Patient and staff data has been stolen as part of a ransomware attack that has targeted several southwestern Ontario hospitals, including the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance.
The data breach was reported by Bluewater Health, the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, Erie Shores HealthCare, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, Windsor Regional Hospital, and service provider TransForm Shared Service Organization in a statement issued on Tuesday.
The affected hospitals reported a regional system outage on October 23 and ultimately determined it was the result of a cyberattack.
Hospital officials said that there is a possibility that those responsible for the attack may publish some of the stolen data.
In accordance with the law, any individual whose information has been compromised will be contacted by their respective hospital. The Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner has also been notified.
Local police departments, the Ontario Provincial Police, INTERPOL and the FBI are all actively investigating the cyberattack.
Restoration of the hospitals’ computer systems remains ongoing and further updates are expected in the upcoming week.
“We understand the impact this incident is having on members of our community, including patients and our employees and professional staff, and deeply apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. We want to thank everyone for their patience during this time,” the hospitals said in a statement.
Hospitals will continue to do their best to contact patients if they have an appointment that needs to be rescheduled. Patients who do not need emergency care are asked to go to their primary care provider or local clinic at this time.