LifeLabs Pays Ransom after Massive Data Breach

The Globe and Mail is reporting LifeLabs Medical Laboratory Services, Canada’s largest lab testing company, has paid a ransom after a major cyber attack led to the theft of lab results for 85,000 Ontarians and potentially the personal information of 15 million customers.

The personal information stolen from the lab test provider could include a customer’s name, address, e-mail, login, passwords, date of birth and health card number, all of which were on the computer systems the hackers accessed.

LifeLabs paid an undisclosed sum to retrieve the data, the company said on Tuesday, and also hired cybersecurity experts to asses the damage. The hired firms “have advised that the risk to our customers in connection with this cyberattack is low and that they have not seen any public disclosure of customer data as part of their investigations, including monitoring of the dark web and other online locations.”

LifeLabs is owned by the investment arm of Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. The company was originally founded by five entrepreneurs from IBM who hoped to create systems for health-care professionals.

At the time, bulking up was seen as necessary because medical laboratories are mostly paid by provincial health ministries and are therefore under constant pressure to cut costs.

Here is the full report from Tim Kiladze at the Globe and Mail