Toronto hospital network says IT problems not caused by cyber attack

One of the country’s biggest hospital networks says the IT alert issued Monday wasn’t the result of a cyber attack.

In a series of tweets Tuesday morning Toronto’s University Health Network said its IT systems will be fully restored by the end of the day.

“We are confident that this was not a cyber attack and work throughout the night has restored virtually all systems and ensured that they are stable,” the statement says.

“There was no breach of patient data as the problems with the systems were entirely internal. The work needed to input all of the information about the care delivered yesterday into the system will take place throughout the day.

“There will be delays to scheduled care today, as there were yesterday and we regret the inconvenience and worry that this has caused for patients and their families. There will also be work to ensure that we correct the causes of the failure.”

This comes after the network of three hospitals — Toronto Western, Toronto General and the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, declared a Code Grey IT emergency. UNH also includes  the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, and The Michener Institute, a post-secondary institution granting diplomas and certificates in health sciences and leadership.

On Tuesday morning UHN websites were back up.

Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children declared a Code Grey last month after a ransomware attack. The Code Grey was canceled last week after IT remediation efforts resulted in 80 per cent of IT systems being brought back online.

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Howard Solomon
Howard Solomon
Currently a freelance writer. Former editor of ITWorldCanada.com and Computing Canada. An IT journalist since 1997, Howard has written for several of ITWC's sister publications, including ITBusiness.ca. Before arriving at ITWC he served as a staff reporter at the Calgary Herald and the Brampton (Ont.) Daily Times.

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