(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)

There has been a breach involving the personal information of about 500 current and former employees at the Interior Health Authority.

Interior Health says in a news release today, Sept. 29, it has enlisted the support of external security and privacy experts to investigate the breach.

The information was found in the possession of two separate people arrested by RCMP in the Lower Mainland over the past three months.

"The protection of our employees’ personal information is extremely important to us,” Human Resources vice president Mal Griffin says in the release. "We take this seriously, including the distress this situation may cause for our staff, and have moved quickly to investigate this matter."

Griffin says the breach is limited to employee records and there is no concern about patient information.

Interior Health has contacted all the impacted current employees and is in the process of notifying former employees. They are being offered one year of credit monitoring services.

Interior Health says it first became aware of a potential breach in late June when it was contacted by RCMP in the Lower Mainland after the arrest of a person who had possession of personal information from a number of people, the majority of whom were Interior Health employees.

An internal investigation was launched and effected employees were immediately notified. Then last week on Sept. 20, RCMP told Interior Health of a second, similar situation involving a different person.

“It’s unclear how this information was obtained, but we see some linkages between the two incidents which has resulted in us enlisting the support of external security consultants,” Griffin says.

Interior Health says it continues to assist the RCMP to the full extent possible and has reported both incidents to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner.

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