On April 11, 2023, CCH’s IT personnel identified a network issue with its systems. After a preliminary investigation with the help of leading third-party cybersecurity experts, the network issue was determined to be a result of a cyber incident. Once this determination was made, CCH took immediate steps to contain the Incident and investigate further.
With the help of our third-party cybersecurity experts, further analysis determined that CCH’s Electronic Health Record System was not impacted by the Incident.
Unfortunately, however, many of CCH’s files, including copies of patient records, became corrupted and several systems were left inoperable (collectively, the “Corrupted Records”) as a result of the Incident.
The investigation identified that these Corrupted Records may have contained some elements of patient data. Depending on certain factors, such as the time period during which you were a patient at CCH, the exact categories of personal health information impacted may vary. Please follow this link to view a full explanation regarding how you may be affected.
Upon learning of the Incident, we immediately sought to contain it by severing access to the Internet and all third-party networks, while maintaining our highest possible standards of patient care.
We engaged leading third-party cybersecurity experts to conduct a detailed investigation into what happened and worked around the clock to remediate the Incident. Our IT team further strengthened security controls and maintained constant monitoring across the CCH environment to limit the risk of this kind of incident happening again.
In compliance with provincial health legislation, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (“IPC”) has also been notified.
Although there is no indication that any information involved in the Incident has been misused, we would like to remind you to be diligent, as always, when protecting your identity by monitoring your accounts and remaining vigilant for incidents of fraud and identity theft.
If you are among those impacted by the Incident (see details at this link) and would like to get in touch with ServiceOntario regarding your health card number, you can visit any of ServiceOntario’s centres, their website, or call them (toll-free in Canada) at 1-800-267-8097.
As we noted above, the IPC has been notified of the Incident. To file a complaint, please visit: https://www.ipc.on.ca/resources/forms/
CCH will not contact you by email requesting you to provide or verify sensitive personal information. When in doubt or if you have any concerns about the validity of any emails CCH sends, please contact us as indicated below.
If you inquired about Community Addiction and Mental Health services prior to April 11th, believe you were placed on a waitlist and have not heard from us, please call 613-938-4240 ext. 8764 to confirm with our staff.
While the investigation is nearing completion, we are continuing to closely monitor the situation and have not detected any malicious use of data. Importantly, CCH’s Electronic Health Record System was not impacted by the Incident.
Our investigation is nearing completion and systems are secure. We are also making progress to fully restore all applications, however, given the magnitude of impact on our back-office systems, delays in processing some requests may be experienced. We apologize for any inconvenience as we work to return to normal operations.
We have implemented several additional safeguards. Our IT team has further strengthened security controls and maintain constant monitoring across the CCH environment to limit the risk of this kind of incident happening again.
Again, we regret that this Incident occurred and apologize for any inconvenience it has caused.
If you have any questions regarding this Incident or if you desire further information or assistance, please contact our Communications Office at 613-938-4240 ext. 2722 or cch.communications@cornwallhospital.ca.
Should there be any further information about this Incident and your personal information, we will provide updates on this webpage.
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