Health IT outage appears to be a Cyber Attack

Minister Haggie says that the health IT outage that has impacted all of the regional health authorities appears to be a cyber attack. Minister Haggie could not confirm if it is in fact a ransomware attack but the investigation is ongoing.

There is no information on if anyone's personal information has been compromised or accessed.

Government became aware of the issue on Saturday morning when systems started to fail.

All of the regional health authorities have been impacted to some degree.

Some patient information is not available at this time. Only emergency procedures are happening. Anyone with appointments is asked to call ahead where possible to see if it is going ahead.

Authorities have been involved to investigate.

There will be regular updates as the situation evolves.

There is a number for those in Eastern Health to call for information on appointments. The number is 1-833-777-1276. Additional staff have been brought in to handle the call volume.

A cyberattack is any offensive maneuver that targets computer information systems, computer networks, infrastructures, or personal computer devices.

A ransomware attack is a type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid.