Cybersecurity experts say they are concerned about the extent of damage to the IT infrastructure of the Newfoundland and Labrador healthcare system following a likely cyber attack last weekend.
Health Minister John Haggie said Monday that the health system’s data center has “two brains” and both were affected by an attack, which caused the cancellation of thousands of medical appointments.
David Shipley, CEO of New Brunswick-based Beauceron Security, said in an interview today that the loss of data backups is concerning because the rebuilding process could take weeks or months to complete.
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The province has declined to elaborate on the alleged attack, but Shipley says the most likely explanation appears to be that hackers infiltrated the IT network and are demanding payment in exchange for access, which is known as a ransomware attack.
Nur Zincir-Heywood, a professor of computer science at Dalhousie University, said in an interview today that ransomware attack programs can sometimes “linger and eavesdrop for weeks and months,” adding that they can spread to the backup data storage.
Zincir-Heywood says it could be a slow task to find the most recent uninfected backup, depending on how the Newfoundland and Labrador system is configured.
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