AHS taking steps to limit impact of targeted phishing scam

EDMONTON – Alberta Health Services (AHS) has been targeted by a phishing scam that has impacted a small number of AHS staff members.

The accounts of about 20 staff members – used to access email and electronic pay records – appear to have been compromised as a result of this phishing scam.

AHS payroll control prevented any payroll deposits from being transferred fraudulently.

We are providing support to the impacted staff members.

This phishing scam was analyzed by our information security systems to limit any further breaches of personal information.

AHS immediately took action to prevent any fraudulent payroll deposits, implemented fresh security measures to protect staff information, and engaged forensic experts to help determine the scope of this intrusion.

It appears that this phishing scam targeted randomly generated staff members, and asked them to change personal details within their AHS account.

AHS takes these types of threats very seriously and has processes to deal with them. We are constantly updating our systems with up-to-date software and patches (corrections or modification in a computer program) to protect against the latest cyberattacks.

Although AHS always takes a proactive approach to prevent phishing scams like these from affecting our systems, we ask that AHS staff be extra vigilant with any suspicious emails.

Phishing is a method of tricking you into clicking on malicious links and following instructions to download files and confirm personal details like usernames and passwords.

Alberta Health Services is the provincial health authority responsible for planning and delivering health supports and services for more than four million adults and children living in Alberta. Its mission is to provide a patient-focused, quality health system that is accessible and sustainable for all Albertans.

- 30 -