Fort St. John city officials have confirmed that no data was lost in connection with a recent cyber-attack on City Hall.
All data that was stolen has now been fully restored in the attack that happened on February 25th.
The city confirmed that this incident was a ransomware attack and they didn’t provide any payment to the unauthorized third party.
The breach crippled phone lines, emails and much of the city’s internal network after an unauthorized third party gained access to part of the city’s network and encrypted data.
“The subset of stolen data equates to less than 1% of our files and were primarily working documents of select City departments. Our HR and Financial systems were not included in this set of data,” said the city’s Head of Communications, Ryan Harvey.
The attack also wreaked havoc on city services that has left cyber security experts grappling with the aftermath.
City officials are still working with their legal team and relevant authorities to review the impacted files for sensitive personal information. Harvey adds, the city has to remain sensitive about what information is being released because of the on-going investigation.
Since the cyber incident response was launched, over 95 per cent of front-facing services have been restored.
“While virtually all front-facing services have been restored, a few will take a bit longer, such as the ‘My City Hall’ portal for paying bills online. This ensures that all security and safety best practices are followed,” said Harvey.
If required, the city will notify individuals who may have been impacted however, they are not expecting personal information to be found in the data and will provide an update when services are fully restored.