CORNWALL, Ont. – Last week, Cornwall Community Hospital (CCH) identified a network issue which an investigation has revealed to be a cyber incident. On its website, the hospital said it has retained external cyber experts to work with its technical team to resolve the issue. It has also informed its regional stakeholders, including law enforcement and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario.
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IQALUIT, Nunavut – Nunavut’s information and privacy commissioner is asking the territorial government to consider prosecuting a doctor who accessed a colleague’s health records without any medical reason to do so. In a review report, Graham Steele (pictured) detailed how a doctor viewed a colleague’s records numerous times over the span of 18 months following “a workplace incident.”
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Ontario intends to eliminate 80 percent of the faxing done in the healthcare system over the next five years, says Michael Hillmer, ADM, Digital and Analytics Strategy Division, Ministry of Health. That level of faxing is made up of clinicians using the error-prone technology for prescriptions, referrals, lab and diagnostic imaging orders.
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HALIFAX – As part of an ongoing investigation, more than 1,200 privacy breaches were discovered at Nova Scotia Health. The effort began in August 2020, when the organization discovered eight employees snooping into the electronic health records of people associated with the mass casualty events of April 18 and 19, 2020.
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LINDSAY, Ont. – Ross Memorial Hospital declared a Code Grey at 10:53 p.m. on Sunday, February 5 due to a suspected cybersecurity incident. The hospital has retained third-party cybersecurity resources to work with its technical experts to investigate the incident according to industry best practices.
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HALIBURTON, Ont. – Haliburton Highlands Health Services declared a Code Grey on Sunday due to an external cybersecurity issue. Officials say the issue has impacted HHHS’s access to the shared integrated information technology system with Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay. The code signals an infrastructure loss or failure.
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TORONTO – The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC) has concluded its review of the high number of privacy breaches at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton due to misdirected faxes. The IPC became aware of the issue at St. Joseph’s after noticing an unusually high number of reported incidents in the hospital’s 2020 annual statistical report. All health information custodians in Ontario are required by law to submit these reports to the IPC annually.
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TORONTO – The University Health Network experienced a day of computer system outages on Monday, forcing it to declare a code grey. The system failure led to the delay of some patient-care procedures, but the hospital was able to restore its computers by the next day.
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CHICAGO – Over a five-year period, the number of ransomware attacks against U.S. healthcare delivery organizations more than doubled, according to a recent study published in JAMA Health Forum. Ransomware attacks within the healthcare industry are particularly devastating, as the cyber criminals can access personal health information (PHI), as well as potentially disrupt care delivery.
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TORONTO – The LockBit ransomware gang – which uses sophisticated viruses to “lock up” data until the organization under attack pays up – has apologized for targeting the Hospital for Sick Children and released a decryptor for free. According to reports on the Internet, the group’s members are prohibited from attacking healthcare organizations.
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