Ontario government home care vendor paid ransom to regain access to its servers: report

In April 2025, servers belonging to Ontario Medical Supply, which works with Crown agency Ontario Health atHome, were locked after a ransomware attack.

A medical supplies vendor, contracted by Ontario’s taxpayer-funded home care agency, paid out a ransom demand last year, after its systems were accessed and data belonging to as many as 200,000 patients was locked, according to an Ontario government agency report.

In April 2025, servers belonging to Ontario Medical Supply — which works with Crown agency Ontario Health atHome to deliver equipment to homecare patients — were locked after a ransomware attack.

A ransomware attack generally takes place when a malicious actor enters a system, stealing its files and locking them. A ransom is then demanded for the company to get access to their files again.

While the Ministry of Health initially said no ransom had been demanded from or paid by either the government or Ontario Health atHome, internal government documents reveal the full picture.

Emails and other records obtained by Global News using freedom of information law indicate that a ransom was paid — potentially by the vendor, OMS.

The revelation appears in a report submitted by Ontario Health atHome to the Information and Privacy Commissioner in late May 2025, with details of the ransomware attack along with confirmation that money was paid to the attackers to regain access.

“Other servers were unencrypted with the key provided upon payment of the ransom,” the report said.

Global News attempted to contact OMS by phone and email, but did not receive a response ahead of publication.