Your union has become aware that on Thursday, May 21, 2020, a cyber-attack occurred to the Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) Employee Family and Assistance Program (EFAP) servers. As a result of this attack, all of the VCH EFAP client files and data base were scrambled, frozen and encrypted. 

VCH has advised your union of the following information:

• They have done everything in their power to investigate the cyber-attack and to ensure your personal information is protected. This includes informing the office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, the RCMP and VPD. 
   
• They were able to restore the last five years of client data. While the years prior to 2015 were also encrypted, VCH has advised that the information was backed up. 
   
• There was no evidence that any data had been removed or misused due to the cyber-attack. 

Regardless, your union is urging VCH employees who utilized EFAP prior to May 21, 2020, to take additional precautions as your personal information, such as your name, date of birth, gender, addresses, phone numbers and other personal information related to health and wellness services you accessed may be compromised.

As a precaution, we are suggesting that you monitor your personal accounts and report any unusual activity as soon as possible to your financial institutions. Additionally, we ask that you contact a steward at your worksite to address any financial losses suffered as a result of this attack.

Please know, VCH will be sending out a communiqué to all members whose information was impacted by the cyber-attack. The email will provide you with the contexts of the cyber-attack, a toll free number (1-844-930-2843) and an email address ([email protected].) that you can access to pose any questions you may have regarding the cyber-attack and the safety of your personal information. You may also access the following website
www.employee-wellness.ca for further details.

Lastly, your employer will offer you the opportunity to request free credit monitoring protection which includes identity theft insurance of up to $50,000 for one year.

If you have any questions or would like any further clarification on this issue, please email [email protected]. 

UWU/MoveUP