Ontario investigating alleged data breach of 200,000 home care patients’ info

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This article was published 27/06/2025 (433 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO – Ontario is investigating an alleged breach of 200,000 home care patients’ personal health data, Health Minister Sylvia Jones said Friday.

Ontario Health atHome, the provincial agency co-ordinating home and community care, said late Friday afternoon that one of its vendors informed the agency that it had experienced a cybersecurity attack and a breach of its health information, potentially including names, contact information and medical supplies or equipment ordered.

The vendor, Ontario Medical Supply, had initially experienced a system outage, then an investigation of that outage found there had been a cyberattack, Ontario Health atHome said.

“We have been working with the (information and privacy commissioner) to inform those who had health information included in this breach about the incident as quickly as possible,” the agency wrote in a statement. 

“Throughout this process, we remain focused on ensuring patients continue to receive the medical supplies and equipment they need while mitigating any further privacy and security risks.”

Ontario Health atHome’s statement did not say when the outage occurred, when the vendor concluded there had been a cyberattack or when the agency notified the information and privacy commissioner.

But Liberal health critic Adil Shamji, who made the potential breach public Friday, said it occurred in mid-March.

“I remain significantly, significantly concerned that there is an urgent, clear and present risk to Ontario home care patients that deserve to know that sensitive personal health information has been compromised of theirs and specifically has not been disclosed,” Shamji said.

He did not reveal how he knows about the alleged breach, but has asked the information and privacy commissioner to investigate.

Shamji said about one-third of all home care patients in the province have been affected.

He wrote to Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario Patricia Kosseim last week and again on Friday outlining his concerns.

Kosseim wrote back to Shamji on Friday, saying her office is looking into the matter.

“I can confirm the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario has received a report of a privacy breach that aligns with the circumstances and date described in your letter,” Kosseim wrote.

Jones said earlier Friday that Ontario Health atHome is investigating whether private information was taken.

“Ontario Health and Ontario Health atHome will notify if there has been any form of breach to individual patients,” Jones said.

Premier Doug Ford said the province will get to the bottom of it.

“We will find out where the gap is and why it wasn’t brought to our attention a lot earlier,” he said.

Ford said the matter is personal to him, after his and his brother Rob Ford’s medical information was breached in 2014. 

“Anyone who breaches health-care records needs to be fired immediately,” Ford said.

This is the second major issue at Ontario Health atHome in less than a year. In the fall, home care and palliative patients experienced delays and shortages of supplies. The agency said it had launched new contracts for delivery of medical supplies weeks earlier. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 27, 2025.