Lakelands Public Health reveals cybersecurity incident
Lakelands Public Health reveals cybersecurity incident
https://www.inquinte.ca/2026/06/lakelands-public-health-reveals-cybersecurity-incident/
Publish Date: 2026-06-30 14:02:00
Source Domain: www.inquinte.ca
DimaBaranow / Depositphotos.com
The health unit that serves Haliburton, Kawarthas and Peterborough, has announced that a cybersecurity incident took place at the start of the year.
Here is the full statement released today.
On January 29, 2026, Lakelands Public Health (formed through the merger of the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit and Peterborough Public Health) discovered a cybersecurity incident affecting the Peterborough Office location IT server only. In compliance with provincial legislation, and out of an abundance of caution and respect for client privacy, Lakelands Public Health is issuing this communication to inform the public of this matter and has also reported the incident to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC).
An unauthorized third party (threat actor) gained remote access to a limited portion of our network environment. As part of the incident, the threat actor accessed, extracted, and encrypted, files containing personal information and personal health information from our servers. All files were successfully restored from backups.
Following a detailed investigation, it was determined that approximately 60,000 current or former residents of Peterborough County and the City of Peterborough may have been affected. This includes individuals who received services from Lakelands Public Health or whose health-related information (such as laboratory results) was received by the organization from 1996 up to January 2026.
Immediately after discovering the incident, we engaged external cybersecurity experts to contain the threat, investigate the scope of the incident, and strengthen our systems and security measures. At this time through continuous monitoring and expert-input, there is no evidence that the information involved has been misused for fraudulent purposes or published online.
About Lakelands Public Health
Lakelands Public Health provides public health programs,…
