Privacy commissioner reviewing reported Ontario Health atHome data breach
CBC
Both Ontario's privacy commissioner and Ontario Health are investigating a reported data breach affecting Ontario Health atHome, the province's home-care coordination service.
The incident may have exposed personal health information for at least 200,000 home-care patients, the Ontario Liberals alleged in a news release Friday morning.
The breach occurred on or around March 17 of this year but was not made public, the Liberals say.
"If exposed, this data can lead to identity theft, insurance fraud, discrimination, stigmatization, phishing, and blackmail," the news release read.
Speaking at an unrelated news conference on Friday, Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the breach involved a third-party vendor.
She said Ontario Health and Ontario Health AtHome are investigating the situation and will notify individual patients as needed.
Premier Doug Ford said the three-month delay in making the incident public will be part of the investigation.
"We'll find out where the gap is and why it wasn't brought to our attention a lot earlier," he said.
Liberal MPP Dr. Adil Shamji, an emergency room physician who represents Don Valley East, said he first sent a letter to the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) on June 20 asking whether the incident was being investigated.
He said he did not receive a response and wrote a second letter to the IPC formally requesting an investigation on Friday.
The IPC is an independent office that oversees Ontario's access and privacy laws. It also investigates privacy complaints related to personal information.
Commissioner Patricia Kosseim responded to Shamji in a letter Friday, confirming the IPC had received a report about the incident.
"This matter is currently under review by our office," she wrote in the letter,.
Kosseim said the IPC cannot provide further details as the office is in the initial stages of reviewing the report.
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