SickKids Says Employee Information Accessed in Cybersecurity Incident

TORONTO — The Hospital for Sick Children says personal information belonging to some current and former employees was accessed during a recent cybersecurity incident.

SickKids disclosed the incident Thursday, saying it was connected to a vulnerability in a third-party software application used by the hospital and other organizations. The incident temporarily affected SickKids’ external Careers website, which has since been restored.

Patient information not affected

The hospital says its clinical systems and patient information were not affected, and patient care continued as usual throughout the incident.

An investigation involving external cybersecurity experts found that personal information belonging to some current and former SickKids, Boomerang and SickKids Foundation employees, as well as SickKids job applicants, may have been affected.

SickKids says it is still reviewing the impacted information and will directly notify individuals determined to have been affected.

As a precaution, the hospital has already alerted everyone potentially impacted and is offering 24 months of complimentary credit monitoring and identity protection services.

SickKids has not disclosed in its statement how many people were affected or specifically what types of personal information may have been accessed.

Source: The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids)