Canada's health system is under siege from unrelenting cybercriminals trying to access patient information and other data, according to health-care professionals and cybersecurity experts who say hospitals and clinics are unable to cope with the growing threats.
The problem has become so big that some are calling for Ottawa to impose national cybersecurity standards on the health-care sector and for an influx of cash from the federal government to deal with the issue.
"My biggest disappointment at this moment is that it seems that anything that has to do with the health sector and cybersecurity is falling between the cracks at the federal level," said Paul-Émile Cloutier, the president and CEO of HealthcareCAN, who spoke with CBC News in early March. The organization represents hospitals, regional health authorities and health research centres across the country.
There's a growing list of health-care institutions that have fallen victim to breaches over the last year. LifeLabs, a Canadian diagnostic and speciality testing company, was hit, possibly exposing the sensitive information of millions of patients.
Three Ontario hospitals were struck by ransomware in October. This year, eHealth Saskatchewan, which manages that province's personal medical records, was compromised, and in Nova Scotia patients had information about their surgeries exposed during a cyberattack.
In mid-March, the federal government's Canadian Centre for Cybersecurity issued an alert about the elevated risk faced by health organizations involved in the nation ..
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