How a ransomware attack left an Ontario government health agency scrambling
Global News
Back in spring 2025, a vendor for an Ontario health agency was hit with a ransomware attack. It set-off weeks of confusion as officials tried to work out who was impacted.
It was early June when representatives of the Ford government’s home care agency penned an increasingly frustrated and urgent legal letter to one of its vendors.
Weeks after a ransomware attack, officials were still trying to work out how many Ontarians had been impacted.
“Just want to reiterate the urgency around the numbers,” a representative of Ontario Health atHome wrote in an email on June 9, 2025.
“We really need to understand our actual exposure (not the potential exposure). Anything you and your client can do to expedite and provide this information sooner rather than later would be appreciated.”
Two months earlier, the company — Ontario Medical Supply (OMS) — had informed Ontario Health atHome its systems had been breached.
The breach would turn out to be a ransomware attack which impacted some 200,000 home care patients in Ontario. A government report suggests OMS ultimately paid the ransom demanded to get access to its servers again.
Despite not knowing for weeks how many patients were impacted, the Ministry of Health did not reveal the cyberattack until an Ontario Liberal MPP sounded the alarm in late June 2025.
Before that, hundreds of pages of internal emails and reports, obtained by Global News using freedom of information laws, reveal a tense scramble to see what data had been compromised and what should be done.
Abbas Omidi is one of 28 ‘senior officials’ of Iran’s regime immigration officers have found in Canada.
Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas says he's hoping to get the province on board with increased funding for the city's low-income transit pass program.
The Town of South Bruce Peninsula announced the death of Wiarton Willie Tuesday and said the search for Willie's successor will begin soon.
Canadian crude oil exports shipped from the West Coast nearly doubled in 2025 to reach a new record, with most of it coming via the Trans Mountain pipeline, a new report shows.
A slew of regions in Central and Eastern Canada are bracing for a series of storms that will bring flash flooding and freezing rain to parts.
Defence lawyers are set to call more witnesses Tuesday in the sexual assault trial of Canadian auto parts tycoon Frank Stronach.
Industry Minister Melanie Joly said a new national security review into TikTok has resulted in 'enhanced protection' measures and other steps to ensure users' privacy.
In April 2025, servers belonging to Ontario Medical Supply, which works with Crown agency Ontario Health atHome, were locked after a ransomware attack.
Fifty First Nations chiefs, councillors and elders gathered at Alberta's legislature, calling on the UCP government to stomp out the push for the province to leave Canada.
The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) sent the real estate agent a complaint letter about the language he uses on social media.
Toward the end 2024, the RCMP busted an alleged drug lab on a property in Falkand, B.C., where the landlord said he had no idea what had taken place on the land he owned.
Premier Scott Moe says the new plan focuses on improving access to primary care providers, with nurse practitioners a key element.
David McGuinty added that Canada has not yet decided to join its NATO allies in offering assistance to Persian Gulf nations that have come under attack by Iran.