Nine N.W.T. health authority computers get 'small scale virus infection'

Nine government of the Northwest Territories computers were removed from service after a computer virus was discovered on them Tuesday.

In an emailed statement, Todd Sasaki, senior communications officer with the Department of Finance, provided details of what happened.

He stated that the "small scale virus infection" affected computers belonging to "one of the health authorities," but no data was compromised.

The computers were removed from the network to prevent the spread of a the virus. Those computers are being wiped of data and restored before being put back into service.

Sasaki confirmed the virus left some data encrypted, but said it was not a ransomware attack, and was not "targeted."

Ransomware software leaves data on a computer or network of computers encrypted with a software key only available to the authors of the software, who then attempt to extort money in exchange for unlocking the data.

"The incident did not affect the delivery of front line services," Sasaki said in the email. "No major information systems used for the delivery of front line services were impacted in any way."

Sasaki did not say if the virus was related to the ransomware attack that left the data on most government of Nunavut computers locked down recently.

The solution in Nunavut was to wipe all infected computers clean, and reinstall data that was saved on unaffected backup servers.

Sasaki said an email was sent to all health authority employees to watch out for suspicious activity.