Hacked hospitals sending 326K letters to patients in Windsor elsewhere Windsor Star

pYou can save this article by registering for free here Or signin if you have an accountppHundreds of thousands of patients including many in WindsorEssex whose personal information was posted to the dark web following a cyberattack last fall will soon receive letters from impacted hospitalsppppCEOs from all five Ontario hospitals devastated by the October attack announced at a joint news conference Wednesday that letters to more than 326000 patients start going out next weekppSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across CanadappSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across CanadappCreate an account or sign in to continue with your reading experienceppppOne patient is clearly too many said Windsor Regional Hospital CEO David MusyjppppHe called criminal cyberattacks disgusting acts particularly when aimed at vulnerable populations including those who come to our hospitals for care and the hardworking and dedicated frontline staff who care for themppppPatient information was stolen from nearly 28000 Windsor Regional patients Musyj said That information included names and possibly diagnoses but not patient medical records social insurance numbers or banking informationppppFrom Erie Shores HealthCare CEO Kristin Kennedy said information from roughly 102000 patients was taken including names addresses and health card numbersppppHotelDieu Grace Healthcare CEO Bill Marra said roughly 46000 patients from the west Windsor hospital were impacted Stolen data include names dates of birth diagnoses treatment information and health card numbersppppPlease know that your privacy and your security are of the utmost importance to us and we deeply regret any distress or inconvenience this incident may have caused Marra saidppppInformation for 82000 patients at Bluewater Health in Sarnia was compromised as was data for 69000 patients at ChathamKent Health AllianceppppIn addition to stealing sensitive information from hundreds of thousands of patients and staff the hackers also shut down service systems at all five hospitalsppppThis week the CEOs reported that most systems were back online and that the patient experience was mostly back to normalppppThe letters sent to impacted patients will state what information was breached and who to contact at each hospital for more information Individuals who received care at more than one of the affected hospitals will receive multiple lettersppppThe hospitals approach to notifying individuals is being done in communication with Ontarios Information and Privacy CommissionerppppIn October a group of hackers known as Daixin Team posted the information on the dark web and later claimed to have sold itppppTransForm Shared Service Organization provides taxpayerfunded IT supply chain and accounts payable services for all five hospitals TransForm and the five hospitals face a proposed 480million class action lawsuit launched by a Bluewater patientppppppTransForm which ran on a publicly funded budget of 25 million last fiscal year and which spent 749 million in taxpayer dollars on supplies and more for the hospitals has avoided or refused public comment on a range of issues since the ransomware was discoveredppppWhile the hospital CEOs did not comment on TransForms lack of transparency during Wednesdays joint media conference Kennedy said the hospitals remain committed to a sharedservice organizationppppWe are TransForm The hospitals are TransForm Kennedy saidppppWe continue to support the work that they have done to restoration as well as recovery in the past several months and we continue to look at best practices to enhance digital services across the regionppppIn roughly two months Leamingtons Erie Shores HealthCare will open a new MRI mobile unit and prioritize patients currently on a regional MRI waitlist Kennedy said The cyberattack created a regional backlog of patients waiting for lessurgent diagnostic imagingpppptcampbellpostmediacompppptwittercomwstarcampbellppppPostmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion Please keep comments relevant and respectful Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments Visit our Community Guidelines for more informationpp365 Bloor Street East Toronto Ontario M4W 3L4pp 2024 Windsor Star a division of Postmedia Network Inc All rights reserved Unauthorized distribution transmission or republication strictly prohibitedppThis website uses cookies to personalize your content including ads and allows us to analyze our traffic Read more about cookies here By continuing to use our site you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy PolicyppYou can manage saved articles in your accountppand save up to 100 articlesppYou can manage your saved articles in your account and clicking the X located at the bottom right of the articlep