Canadian lab test provider pays ransom to secure hacked data

Lab test provider LifeLabs said Tuesday that it paid a ransom to secure data for Canadians that was stolen in a data breach in late October.

Hackers also obtained personal information of an unknown number of the company's 15 million Canadian customers, who are primarily in Ontario and British Columbia. The information included health card numbers, names, email addresses, logins, passwords and dates of birth.

The Toronto-based company declined to say how much money was paid to secure the data.

The compromised test results were from 2016 and earlier. LifeLabs said there was no evidence that results were accessed in other provinces aside from Ontario.

LifeLabs said it has been advised by cyber security firms that the risk to customers is low and it has not seen any public disclosure of customer data as part of its investigations.

The company said it has notified the privacy commissioner of the attack and has taken steps to strengthen its cyber defenses. It is offering customers one free year of protection that includes dark web monitoring and identity theft insurance.