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Message for Interior Health employees
Did you work for Interior Health (IH) between 2003 and 2009? Your personal information may be affected.
Employee information incident
Update on employee information incident
You may have seen recent media reports about an incident involving Interior Health employee information.
In March 2024, we asked individuals who worked at Interior Health between 2003 and 2009 to call a toll-free number to find out if their personal information was included in a document recovered during an RCMP investigation.
If you were employed by Interior Health between 2003 and 2009 and are seeking information on the privacy incident, please call 1-833-489-1705 to determine if you were impacted. There are steps you can take to protect your personal information.
Background
In January 2024, the Vernon North Okanagan RCMP informed IH about a document discovered during an investigation that contained personal information of individuals, including current and former employees of IH. The information seized by police included names, dates of birth, social insurance numbers, home addresses, phone numbers, and the individuals’ age in 2009. The document provided to IH has more than 20,000 names on it.
No patient information is contained in the document.
IH has confirmed there are approximately 7,000 current employees listed and are taking steps to notify them. Due to the age of the data and its broad scope, IH is not able to accurately confirm the former employee information nor where the information came from.
We do know that the information in the data provided by the RCMP is broad, not limited to IH information, and likely from 2009.
Through an external review, we have also confirmed that this information is not currently circulating on the dark web, and we will continue to monitor this.
Frequently asked questions
The list of names and information appears to be from a 2009 document. There is no evidence it relates to a recent breach of IH systems.
This came to IH’s attention through a recent RCMP investigation.
The list and information from the RCMP have approximately 20,000 names on it. We know there are about 7,000 current employees and are taking steps to notify them. Due to the age of the data, we are not able to accurately confirm the former employee information at this time.
If you were employed by Interior Health between 2003 and 2009 and are seeking information on the privacy incident, please call 1-833-489-1705 to determine if you were impacted. There are steps you can take to protect your personal information.
We will contact all current employees directly.
However, once an individual leaves IH, we no longer have access to their up-to-date personal information – phone number, email, etc. This is why we are issuing a call out to former employees who worked for IH between 2003 and 2009 to phone our call centre to confirm if their information is in the document obtained by the RCMP during its investigation.
Any affected employees – current and former – will be offered credit monitoring services paid for by Interior Health for two years as a precautionary measure.
In situations like this, credit monitoring is typically offered for one year. Out of an abundance of caution, we are offering two years.
No. Information in the document is specific to the individual employees – current or former.
This investigation required the secure sharing of information between several organizations, including law enforcement, and further verification to try to determine a source of the data set.
We also needed time to review the full list of names to determine who on the list is a current or former employee.
It also took time to set up credit monitoring through current providers of this service and processes to support notification of a large number of individuals.
IH is taking the extra step of direct and public notification to support these individuals in protecting themselves from the potential of identity theft.
No. No patient information was in the document.
IH has continuously taken steps to ensure that the most advanced and up to date security safeguards are in place for its systems and processes. Like other organizations, what we have in place today is even more stringent than in 2009. However, IH is unable to disclose the specific details about its upgraded security measures for security reasons.
Credit monitoring is a service which notifies someone after certain updates have been made to their credit report and credit score, it helps to see if somebody is trying to apply for credit using their name. This service is often used when someone is concerned about being a victim of fraud.
If you have been the victim of identity theft, call the RCMP and reference the file #2023-19315.
Protect your information: tips and advice
In this digital age, it's important to take steps to safeguard your personal information online.
Some suggested actions include:
- Updating login credentials
- Enabling multi-factor authentication on accounts that are used for online transactions
- Monitoring financial and personal online accounts for any unusual activity.
- Shred or destroy paperwork that contain personal and/or financial information.
If you see unauthorized access to personal or financial accounts, take the following steps:
- Notify your financial institution immediately
- Contact local police
- Contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) using their Online Reporting System or by phone at 1-888-495-8501
- Learn more from:
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