A security breach related to Ontario’s COVID-19 vaccine portal exposed the personal information of approximately 360,000 people in the province.
“In more than 95 percent of cases, only names and/or phone numbers were affected,” the Ontario Ministry of Business and Public Services said in a statement.
Affected individuals will begin receiving email notifications on Friday if their personal information was part of this breach, CTV News reported.
On November 16, 2021, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) launched an investigation after it discovered that people who made appointments or accessed vaccination certificates through the COVID-19 immunization system had received suspicious emails .
A week later, two people were indicted, one of them a government employee. Ayoub Sayid, 21, a resident of Ottawa, and Rahim Abdu, 22, a resident of Quebec, were both charged with unauthorized use of a computer.
“Ontario’s COVID-19 vaccine reservation system is routinely monitored and tested under Department of Health cybersecurity protocols, and we remain confident that the reservation system continues to be a safe and secure tool for Ontario residents to Ontario can use,” said the minister.
