No patient information was affected by the cyberattack, and the hospital has removed the software from the computers, Kate Eggins, hospital spokeswoman, told Ottawa Citizen.
“The malware locked down the files, and the hospital responded by wiping the drives,” Ms. Eggins said. “We are confident we have appropriate safeguards in place to protect patient information and continue to look for ways to increase security.”
The ransomware infiltrated the hospital network in the form of a spam email. When a user opens the attachment in the spam email, the affected software is able to encrypt data on the computer. However, Ms. Eggins told CBC the hospital was able to remedy the situation without making any payments.
More articles on data breaches:
Premier’s fears averted: Stolen laptop that risked a 206k-patient data breach returned without incident
St. Joseph Health to pay $7.5M settlement to patients affected by 2012 data breach
Karmanos Cancer Center breach exposes 2,800 medical records
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