Radiation care moved out of Windsor international law enforcement working on cyberattack CBC News

pRadiation treatments for cancer patients are being transferred to other hospitals International law enforcement are investigating Eight days after the cyberattack at five southwestern Ontario hospitals was first declared the scope of the problem and the agencies working on the solution have become more clearppLocal healthcare officials have now said the cyberattack is a case of ransomware Patient and employee data was taken and could be exposed ppSensitive medical data is extremely problematic in the hands of the wrong people Where I would start is what is the strength of the security measures these hospitals had employed to begin with said Ann Cavoukian the former privacy commissioner of OntarioppIm guessing and Im saying Im guessing I havent examined it but Im guessing they werent very strongppCavoukian is also the executive director of data security company Global Privacy and Security By Design ppTransForm the shared services organization founded by five local hospitals to manage IT and accounts has been under a cyberattack that has affected their member hospitals for eight days ppIn a statement Tuesday TransForm said patient and staff data has been taken and information could be exposed as a result of the attack People impacted by the cyberattack will be notified the company said and the FBI as well as Interpol are investigating ppWe continue to work around the clock to restore systems and we expect to have updates related to the restoration of our systems in the upcoming weekppThe attack has taken hospital email and internet offline  ppWe have notified all relevant regulatory organizations including the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner the organization saidppBefore Tuesdays update it had been four days since the last official update on the cyberattacks that forced computer systems offline at several southwestern Ontario hospitals ppThe affected hospitals Windsor Regional Hospital Erie Shores HealthCare HôtelDieu Grace Healthcare Bluewater Health and ChathamKent Health Alliance have had to reschedule and postpone surgeries and appointments int he wake of the attackppPeople are asked to visit local clinics or their primary care provider where possible and only attend the hospital for true emergencies ppThe Ontario Ministry of Health has not returned multiple requests for comment from CBC News saying in its lone statement last week that it was aware of the breach and was confident in TransForms handling of the response ppOn Tuesday Windsor Regional Hospital WRH said in a statement its cancer care centre was also impacted by the cyberattack ppThe hospital said theres currently no radiation treatment but its working to implement radiation service without the equipment being compromised ppThe hospital is also working with other cancer care organizations to transfer patients current care well as new referrals for radiation ppAccording to the hospital patients requiring chemotherapy and related services are being treated within WRH with plans to also do so at other centresppJoannie Cowie is an outpatient at Windsor Regional Hospital Frequently in the hospital for treatment because she is anemic she also has growths that currently need to be biopsied and tested for cancer something she says has been postponedppShe was at the hospital last week when the cyberattack first happened and said its very scaryppWhen my IV bag came it came with handwritten instructions on the bag Cowie said I cant believe its still not fixed ppCowie said staff were taking written orders and prescriptions through the hospital often at a run While she commended staff for working as hard as they are she says she believes the government needs to step up pp They need to step up their game the hospital and the Ford government because there are privacy laws and you dont just play games with peopleppAndrew Dowie Conservative MPP for WindsorTecumseh said TransForm continues to work on this with the help of outside expertsppRestoring the systems back to where they need to be to offer the appointments and procedures that is the priority for Transform for the hospitals and ultimately any way that the province can support them certainly I want to share that those efforts are being made said DowieppDaniel Tsai is a lecturer in technology at the University of Toronto He says he believes TransForm took too long to declare the cyberattack ppAs for where any patient data is Tsai says if its published it wont be on a website just anyone can access ppPeople may not see it in a public sphere he said That information can cause quite a bit of grief anyone can buy that information off the dark web and try to extort peopleppTsai pointed to the highly publicized hack of Ashley Madison the dating site geared toward infidelity and the people who were blackmailed by criminals after that attack ppPeople should make sure they monitor their identity and banking information for possible signs of fraud he added but that wont help catch any medical data that could have been exposed ppThis is likely the largest breach of information in Ontario history he said Other hospitals including SickKids in Toronto have also had cyberattacks ppIm surprised the minister of health hasnt addressed this issue he said I think this is a huge problem and we need a plan of action here So the silence is deafening ppNot only did the hospital administrators in Windsor drop the ball by waiting more than a week to actually come out and say what the issue is but the leadership from the top down has also failed these patients and thats shamefulppCavoukian the former privacy commissioner says having medical data out there can have serious ripple effects ppConclusions can falsely be drawn on very sensitive data like medical data and in the wrong hands it can get you into a lot of trouble she said ppDont underestimate who would want my health data so identity especially linked with sensitive health data has to be extremely strongly protectedppCavoukian says she also has an idea why the hospitals have been so quietppIm assuming theyre very nervous about it because Im again assuming sufficient measures werent in place at the time of this breach she saidppBut current laws in place to safeguard patient and data privacy need to be updated ppThe use of encryption and the methodology of the encryption This should be encoded in this legislation It isnt Cavoukian said Yes you need to protect health data but thats not enough The how and where and what the means required and the need to look under the hood after its been done and audit whats been done all of this is criticalppWith files from Jennifer La Grassa and Bob BeckenppAudience Relations CBC PO Box 500 Station A Toronto ON Canada M5W 1E6 ppTollfree Canada only 18663064636ppIt is a priority for CBC to create products that are accessible to all in Canada including people with visual hearing motor and cognitive challengesppClosed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows 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