The provincial government has provided an update on the cyber attack that shut down much of the healthcare system last fall.

Health Minister John Haggie still could not provide information regarding who orchestrated the attack, and why the province was targeted, only saying that the threat has been “contained” and all services have been restored.

However, due to the ongoing investigation, it has been revealed that over 200,000 files were taken from an Eastern Health IT drive. They say the drive may contain both patient and employee information, some of which dates back to 1996.

They say those files represent about one percent of information on the server.

Eastern Health CEO Dave Diamond says they are reviewing the situation to determine the exact number of files containing personal information.

He explains that, between patients and staff, thousands of people could be affected. He says the numbers will become clearer over the next 6-8 weeks.

Letters will be sent to those affected, and credit monitoring services will be provided free of charge.