Image Credit: Facebook / LifeLabs

By Canadian Press

LIFELABS

Lab test provider LifeLabs says it paid ransom to secure stolen data

Dec 17, 2019 | 12:54 PM

TORONTO — Lab test provider LifeLabs says it paid a ransom to secure data, including test results from up to 85,000 Ontarians, that was stolen in a data breach in late October.

The hackers also obtained personal information of an unknown number of its 15 million Canadian customers — based mostly in Ontario and British Columbia — including health card numbers, names, email addresses, login, passwords and dates of birth.

The Toronto-based company declined to say how much money was paid to secure the data.

The compromised test results were from 2016 and earlier and LifeLabs says there is no evidence that results were accessed in other provinces aside from Ontario.

LifeLabs says it has been advised by cybersecurity firms that the risk to customers is low and it has not seen any public disclosure of customer data as part of its investigations.

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The company says it has notified the privacy commissioner of the attack and has taken steps to strengthen its cyber defences. It is offering customers one free year of protection that includes dark web monitoring and identity theft insurance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 17, 2019.