Patients at the University of Calgary Clinic have been cautioned that their personal medical history may have been revealed to hackers after a virus hit a computer storing medical data.

Dr. Cathy MacLean, Head, Department of Family Medicine, divulged that two types of viruses hit the Sunridge Medical Clinic computer. One virus has the propensity to shut down a system, while the other has the ability to allow hackers to control or access information on the computer’s data base.

The infected computers had data that contained patient demographics, referrals, health insurance information, billing codes, and Alberta Health Care numbers.

Though MacLean maintained that the University lacks evidence to claim that identity theft may have been the purpose of the attack, she also expressed concern over the untoward incident.

She said, “The concern always when health card information or personal information is compromised is that there is the potential that information could be used for things like identity theft. Having said that, health information is not commonly used for that purpose”.

Keeping this is view, the University has sent out letters to 5000 patients informing them of a potential breach of privacy.