Ottawa: The federal government of Canada reportedly said that Cyber security and privacy experts are in constant contact with public benefits providers to address a recent “cyber incident” impacting MSH International (MSH), and to protect the personal information of government employees.
According to a statement Wednesday from Treasury Board President Anita Anand, Canada Life has assured that it is “looking at options to support affected members” during the outage.
“We have asked Canada Life to work diligently with MSH to investigate what information may have been affected and to restore all services in a safe and prompt manner,” Anand said.
As a federal subcontractor, MSH assists Canada Life in connecting members of the Public Service Health Care Plan (PSHCP) who are travelling or posted outside of Canada with coverage, according to releases this week from the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.
“This situation is a stark reminder of the ongoing risks faced by public and private organizations across Canada and abroad…cause disruptions, steal sensitive data, and every link in a global supply chain can pose a threat to cyber security…cyber security organizations across the Government, and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, we will continue to work hard to prevent, detect and manage these threats,” Anita Anand, President of the Treasury Board reportedly said in a statement.
Canada Life said that due to the cyber incident, the PSHCP’s membership portal was made unavailable resulting in the inability of MSH to process or access the status of claims under the plan.
After detecting the incident on Feb. 9, MSH International Canada had said that they immediately paused services and notified Law enforcement.
A thorough investigation is underway, the insurance provider said in a statement.
It could not be determined at that time what information may have been accessed in the security incident, the insurance provider said.
“We are working to determine if personal information was affected by this incident. If the investigation determines personal information was affected, impacted individuals will be notified,” MSH reportedly said.
