 Print
OpenMedia: The government is just not doing what is needed to ensure our data is protected.
1-20-2020
LifeLabs just revealed that it paid a ransom to cyber criminals to retrieve the records of fifteen million people in Canada.1
The data stolen included birthdates, addresses, emails, passwords, and health card numbers—everything needed for identity theft. And even though LifeLabs paid the ransom, there's no guarantee the data won't leak anyway.
The LifeLabs breach is just another example of corporations playing fast and loose with our most private information. OpenMedia is working to pass strong data privacy regulations in 2020, and we need the resources to make it happen.
LifeLabs is Canada's largest provider of diagnostic and general medical testing, handling millions of people's sensitive information. But when the company discovered the data breach, it waited more than a month before informing the public.
This was the second instance of LifeLabs not securing our data. In 2013, the company admitted that it “lost track of” a computer hard drive with information for more than 16,000 patients.
The government is just not doing what is needed to ensure our data is protected. Millions of Canadians' data were exposed in Facebook breaches. AggregateIQ was found to have violated Canadian privacy laws but was not penalized.
And that's not all. Faulty facial recognition technology is becoming more widespread, and we're still fighting digital strip searches at the border.
The government's Digital Charter promises that we are able to count on the “integrity, authenticity and security of the services we use and should feel safe online.”
You can contribute to pressure Parliament to institute real data privacy protections.
https://www.e-activist.com/ea-action/enclick?ea.url.id=4463638&clid=2205&ea.campaigner.email=zHVEr38uLZOjrsjJWyYim5mQCvNVYxKY&ea.campaigner.id=eYZDl51LsxSha0eWUOvjsw==
Footnotes:
[1][2][3] LifeLabs pays ransom after cyberattack exposes information of 15 million customers in B.C. and Ontario: CBC
[4] Canadian tech firm AggregateIQ broke privacy laws over Brexit: Canada's National Oberver
[5] Canada's Digital Charter: Trust in a digital world: Government of Canada
Footnotes:
|