VCH warns employees of cyber attack, no evidence data removed, misused
Posted July 8, 2020 4:26 pm.
Last Updated July 8, 2020 4:33 pm.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Vancouver Coastal Health is out with a warning for anyone who accessed its Employee and Family Assistance Program over the last five years.
In May, there was a breach involving ransomware, and while investigators say no data was removed or misused, the health authority is offering free credit monitoring services as an extra precaution.
“VCH immediately activated its cyber-attack response, engaged external cybersecurity experts to help conduct a comprehensive investigation, and reported the incident to the Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner,” reads a release from VCH.
.@VCHhealthcare has a warning for those who used the Employee & Family Assistance Program (i.e. counselling, wellness) over the last 5 yrs of a cyber-attack that happened May 21. While there’s no evidence data was removed from EFAP pcs, it’s offering free credit monitoring. #tech
— Ria Renouf (@riarenouf) July 8, 2020
The Employee and Family Assistance Program offers confidential counselling and wellness-related services to the authority’s employees and their families. More information is available here.
“At the time of the attack, the EFAP computer systems were kept separate from the VCH network and maintained by an independent Information Technology services provider for privacy and confidentiality,” VCH says.
It says this has since changed and the computer system has been brought into the VCH Information Management and Information Technology network “for ongoing oversight and security protection.”
