Canada’s Hospital for Sick Children attacked by cybercriminals again as employee data stolen

Canada’s largest pediatric health center suffered a recent cybersecurity incident that exposed the personal information of current and former employees. 

The Hospital for Sick Children — which was hit in a ransomware incident in 2022 that disabled some of its systems — released a statement on Thursday warning of a data theft incident they believe is tied to a third-party software application.

The recent cyberattack briefly took down the careers website for the hospital, which is known colloquially as SickKids, prompting it to begin an investigation. 

SickKids did not respond to requests for comment about when the attack occurred but said in a statement that investigators believe the hackers likely stole information related to current and former employees as well as job applicants and employees of related organizations, including the SickKids Foundation. 

The notice does not specify what employee data was taken. The incident did not involve any clinical systems or patient information. SickKids did not respond to a list of questions, only resending the published statement.  

People who may be impacted have already been alerted and offered two years of credit monitoring services.  

SickKids was previously targeted by ransomware hackers in 2022 who shut down the hospital’s systems ahead of the Christmas holiday. It took weeks for the hospital to recover from the attack — which impacted pharmacy systems, diagnostic imaging results and internal timekeeping systems for staff. 

The group behind the attack eventually apologized, offered a decryptor for free and claimed to have fired the affiliate who targeted the hospital. 

SickKids is the latest healthcare organization to announce a breach this week after two other large organizations, Baylor Genetics and CareCloud, came forward to provide notice of recent cyberattacks.

Baylor Genetics said the leak occurred in June and involved medical testing information, laboratory test results, health insurance information and Social Security numbers. Electronic health records giants CareCloud said 3.7 million people were impacted by a March cybersecurity incident.