SickKids children’s hospital bandages up careers website after intruder breaks in

Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, also known as SickKids, has revealed that sensitive data of current and former staff, as well as job applicants, was exposed after a cyber intruder exploited a security flaw in a third-party software application utilized by the hospital. The breach specifically targeted the hospital's external careers website, which has since been restored. The hospital emphasized that clinical systems and patient information remained unaffected, and patient care continued as normal.

SickKids clarified that current and former employees of the hospital, the SickKids Foundation, and its Vaughan, Ontario-based Boomerang clinic, as well as job applicants, may all be affected by the breach. The hospital refrained from commenting on the extent of the data breach but assured that individuals identified as affected would receive identity and credit monitoring services.

Out of caution, all potentially impacted individuals were notified and offered 24 months of complimentary credit monitoring and identity protection services.

SickKids has a history of grappling with cyber threats. On December 18, 2022, the hospital fell victim to a LockBit ransomware affiliate, an attack that was particularly severe for LockBit, which in turn earned a highly unusual apology from the attackers on December 31, 2022. The LockBit affiliate promised to offer SickKids a free decryptor and expelled the perpetrator from their program.

Despite the grim circumstances, SickKids managed to recover around 60 percent of its systems within the given timeframe, refusing to pay the ransomed sum.

However, the LockBit affiliate's kindness proved short-lived, as the group reverted to its usual extortion tactics exactly a year later, refusing to roll back the attack on Saint Anthony Hospital, a children's healthcare facility in Chicago.