The victims of B.C.'s latest privacy breach are being advised to protect themselves, but it's unclear whether they'll be on the hook for the safeguards officials are recommending for them.

Burnaby resident Sherryl Fitzpatrick is one of roughly 7,500 people whose personal information, including names, birth dates, health numbers and genders, has been accessed using the province's PharmaNet system.

Like the other victims, she received a letter from the Ministry of Health this month recommending she take some precautions to protect herself from identity theft, but she was stunned to learn she might have to foot the bill.

"I think that is unfair, and I think Christy Clark and the government should cover the cost," Fitzpatrick said.

"It's their breach. It's not my fault, it's not my error."

The ministry's letter suggests victims collect their mail more frequently and keep it in a secure place, and call the bank and potentially police if they see suspicious financial activity in their accounts.

It also suggests using a credit monitoring company to watch for unusual behaviour – a paid service that can cost hundreds annually.

"That's a lot of money," Fitzpatrick said.

Asked about the possibility of reimbursing residents who were impacted by the breach, Health Minister Terry Lake would not commit any funding Friday.

"The privacy breach, from what we know, is an issue where physician access is compromised somehow. So that is not within the Ministry of Health, these are in specific physicians' offices," Lake said.

"To our knowledge no financial information has been accessed but we will work with individuals on a case-by-case basis if they are concerned about any financial information of their credit being compromised."

That's of little comfort to people like Fitzpatrick, who believe the system should have been more secure, particularly since the PharmaNet system has been compromised before.

In 2014, another 1,600 people's information was accessed illegally through the system. 

"They want me to monitor my credit report rating, my bank accounts and my information to make sure that I don't have identity theft because of something they couldn’t protect me from," Fitzpatrick said.

The government promised free credit protection services for everyone impacted in the breach two years ago.

Apart from thousands of victims whose basic information was accessed in the latest incident, another 80 or so had their medication history accessed as well.

Fortunately, banking information isn't attached to PharmaNet accounts, according to the ministry, so any potential identity thieves will still have some work cut out for them.

However, the information accessed could still be used as a "starting point for identity thefts," the ministry added.

The province has confirmed it first learned about the breach last fall, and went on to launch an investigation.

B.C.'s Information and Privacy Commissioner has also been notified, and an independent security review into the PharmaNet system is underway and expected to be completed by July.

With files from CTV Vancouver's Bhinder Sajan and The Canadian Press