A man from Richmond, B.C. has been arrested in connection with a massive privacy breach of the government's PharmaNet system.
The breach, which targeted more than 20,000 patients' PharmaNet profiles, was reported to Vancouver police in February, triggering an investigation by the department's Identity Theft Unit.
Police have since identified a suspect, and on March 23 officers executed a search warrant at his home and took him into custody.
His name hasn't been released, but police confirmed he's facing a number of yet-unapproved charges related to identity theft.
"Information gathered confirmed that the suspect gained unauthorized access to the PharmaNet system and gathered patient’s personal data. That information was then used for fraudulent purposes," the Vancouver Police Department said in a news release.
Authorities haven't shared any details about how patients' information was allegedly used, or how the PharmaNet system was breached in the first place.
The Ministry of Health said it's possible the person responsible gained access by impersonating a doctor.
When the breach was first revealed to the public in February, the provincial government was aware of roughly 7,500 patients whose information was accessed. On Monday officials confirmed another 13,000 impacted patients have been identified.
B.C. has offered to mitigate the risk of fraud and identity theft by offering free credit monitoring to all of the thousands of impacted patients, who are receiving information on their options via letter.
The Ministry of Health also promised to implement more robust security measures with PharmaNet vendors.
