Privacy & Security

HALIFAX – A former employee at St. Martha’s Regional Hospital, in Antigonish, N.S., inappropriately accessed the personal health information of 2,690 people, according to a news release from Nova Scotia Health. The health authority says the person responsible has been terminated and it is in the process of sending letters to those who were affected. Read More

SARNIA, Ont. – Starting this week, five hospital networks impacted by a ransomware attack last October will begin mailing roughly 326,800 letters to patients whose personal information – including roughly 20,000 social insurance numbers – was stolen. The hospitals are all in southwestern Ontario. Read More

TORONTO – A lawsuit pitting a U.S. company against Ontario Health could determine if the province has the right to regulate where personal medical information is stored. The company, Doxy.me, sells a video conferencing platform to health professionals for virtual appointments. The data captured by those appointments is stored in the U.S. Read More

BARRIE, Ont. – A possible ransomware attack has stung a network of local medical clinics in Barrie, affecting several facilities and dozens of doctors. The Barrie and Community Family Health Team (BCFHT), which operates the clinics, confirmed what they are calling a “cyber-security incident” involving their computer network. Read More

VANCOUVER – A Canadian class-action lawsuit accusing a popular fertility tracking app of sending users’ intimate health information – including details about their periods, sex lives and pregnancies – to companies like Facebook without their knowledge has been allowed to go ahead. Read More

TORONTO – An Ontario doctor has had his licence temporarily suspended by a disciplinary tribunal after it found that he had wrongly accessed patient records, including family members and colleagues, hundreds of times over the span of years. Read More

MONTREAL – Residents on Montreal’s North Shore are being asked to be vigilant after the personal information of thousands of people have been leaked in a cyberattack. According to the Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux (CISSS) de Laval, there was a “security breach” at Segma Recherche, a market research firm that had conducted a survey for the regional health authority. Read More

WASHINGTON, DC – Companies, individuals and other victims of ransomware attacks paid hackers more than $1.1 billion in 2023 in exchange for unlocking their data, according to new research. Read More

SAN FRANCISCO – 23andMe said raw genomic data and health reports were among the data stolen in a breach lasting between late April and late September 2023. The latest details about the 23andMe hack were revealed in data breach notification letters submitted to the California Attorney General’s office and published on the AG’s website on or about Jan. 21. Read More