Cyberattack impacting local hospital systems leaves patients in limbo

With a history of cancer, Kristy Anthony says she was scheduled to have an ultrasound Monday at Windsor Regional Hospital's Met Campus.

“They apologized but just said it was cancelled,” Said Anthony. “Because I have swollen lymph nodes they got me in very quickly. I called on Wednesday. They got me in. Then they cancelled it.”

Hackers have turned Anthony, and many others across the region, into victims of a cyberattack affecting Bluewater Health, Chatham Kent Health Alliance, Erie Shores Health Care, Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare and Windsor Regional Hospital.

“It's their fault (hackers) I guess that we're kind of stuck in limbo waiting for appointments that are concerning our health,” she said.

The extent of the attack is unknown according to TransForm Shared Service Organization, the service provider for the hospitals.

A statement issued Monday said the company is looking into the source of the incident including whether any patient information was affected. The system outage included email.

“We'd have to look at what their responsibility is whether third party companies are involved with this so who's handling the cloud piece of it? Who's handling the back up? Who's actually hosting the email?” said Frank Abbruzzese, president of cyber security company AlphaKor, who points out attacks on IT systems are common in the public and private sectors.

He's not directly involved in the TransForm incident.

“From experience it probably happened 120-plus days ago and it laid dormant until somebody clicked on something and all of a sudden the ransomware, you get the hack, you get the virus and you get the problem you're facing today,” Abbruzzese said.

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and Abbruzzese advises companies to have an updated cyber security plan.

“When you're receiving emails from people you don't know, question it. Ask why am I getting this?” Abbruzzese said.

In a statement to CTV News, the Ministry of Health says it is aware of a cybersecurity breach at TransForm. The ministry says it is confident that TransForm has and continues to take appropriate steps in response to managing the incident.