Minister Anand Issues a Statement on Fourth Party Incident

February 14, 2024 – Ottawa, Ontario – Treasury Board of Canada Secretariate

The Honourable Anita Anand, President of the Treasury Board, made the following statement today:

“The Government is committed to ensuring that the personal information of all Government of Canada employees is safe and secure.

On Friday, the Government was notified of a cyber incident affecting MSH International’s systems. MSH supports Canada Life in providing health care services to public servants posted or travelling abroad.

Since the incident, the Government’s cyber security and privacy experts have remained in constant contact with Canada Life to ensure that necessary steps are being taken to protect government employees’ personal information.

At this point, we have asked Canada Life to work diligently with MSH to investigate what information may have been affected and to restore all services in a safe and prompt manner. We have also spoken with Canada Life who has reassured us that they are looking at options to support affected members in helping them access their benefits while the MSH digital services are unavailable.

This situation is a stark reminder of the ongoing risks faced by public and private organizations across Canada and abroad. Cyber threat actors are continuously looking for opportunities to exploit information technology vulnerabilities, cause disruptions, steal sensitive data, and every link in a global supply chain can pose a threat to cyber security.

Together with the Office of the Chief Information Officer, cyber security organizations across the Government, and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, we will continue to work hard to prevent, detect and manage these threats.”