Cyberattacks on Canadian health care increasingly common. What can be done?

Since 2015, at least 14 major cyberattacks have targeted Canadian health information systems, according to an article published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Canada’s health-care system needs to adopt better security practices as cyberattacks, including data breaches and ransomware, become increasingly common in the country, experts say.

Since 2015, at least 14 major cyberattacks have targeted Canadian health information systems, according to an article published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal Monday.

Most recently, five Ontario hospitals, along with their shared IT provider, were affected by a ransomware attack last month that caused an outage of some online services, forcing many surgeries and appointments to be postponed.

The province was hit by another massive cybersecurity breach in May, with the personal health information of 3.4 million people who sought pregnancy care and advice in Ontario compromised.

Canada ranks 10th in breach count globally, with more than 207.4 million compromised accounts since 2004, according to Surfshark’s annual index on digital well-being.

The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security warned in an August report that over the next two years, Canada’s critical infrastructure will “almost certainly” continue to be targeted by cybercriminals.

While the digitization of health information systems on shared networks has helped with convenience, access and quality of care, the technology has also presented security risks, co-authors from the University of Toronto, Unity Health Toronto and the University of British Columbia said in the CMAJ article.

“Although some clinicians have dedicated information technology (IT) training, most do not, and navigating increasingly complex health information systems can create considerable stress,” they said in the paper.