Alberta's privacy commissioner is investigating whether Alberta Health Services properly safeguards the public's personal health information after CBC News revealed the electronic system housing it was vulnerable to outside security threats. A 2018 assessment by an external security firm found several "significant risks" with the health authority's administration of the Alberta Netcare Portal. He declined to provide any further details because the investigation, conducted under the Health Information Act, is ongoing. The Health Information Act states that a custodian of private health information has a duty to protect against any reasonably anticipated threat to the security or loss of that information. As a condition of its operating agreement with Alberta Health, AHS must conduct vulnerability assessments every two years and meet certain service-level targets.

Source: CBC News February 19, 2019 12:56 UTC