B.C. government accused of concealing information about cyber breach

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British Columbia's NDP is under fire for delaying more than a week to inform the public that the government had suffered a cybersecurity attack.

Premier David Eby announced at 6pm on Wednesday that the state had been the target of a “high-level cybersecurity incident” involving government networks, eight days after government employees were asked to change and strengthen their passwords.

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BC United leader Kevin Falcon said the timing of the announcement was questionable and was intended to drown out bad news.

“We know they've known this was a problem for at least eight days,” Falcon said Thursday. “And then (Wednesday) night, they quietly released a statement during a Canucks playoff hockey game. This is part of their pattern of always being secretive and not being transparent about things.”

State employees were advised early last week to immediately change their passwords to 14 characters. B.C.'s Office of the Chief Information Officer said at the time that this was part of the government's efforts to “regularly” update security measures.

Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said the government recently became aware of the threat, but did not say exactly when.

He said technical security experts immediately began working to secure the system.

“The challenge of going out right away and telling people that is that if you don't protect everything, if you don't understand what's going on, you're going to do that thing in that moment. “It makes the system even more vulnerable to outside interference. People trying to do mischief,” he told reporters on Thursday.

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Farnworth declined to say whether foreign forces were behind the attack.

There was no demand for ransom. “One thing I can confirm to him is that this is not a ransomware incident.”

Mr. Farnworth reiterated Mr. Eby's statement that there is no evidence that sensitive information such as personal health records was accessed or compromised.

The Prime Minister's Office said the government's online security firewall protects against 1.5 billion attempts to gain unauthorized access to online systems every day.

Eric Lee, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia Okanagan who specializes in cybersecurity, said it's especially concerning when a government becomes the victim of a cybersecurity attack, because the government has access to millions of British Columbians. He said that's because they hold sensitive information such as social security numbers, addresses and addresses. Phone numbers — pose a significant risk of identity theft. However, Lee did not criticize the government's response to news of the cyber attack.

Lee said artificial intelligence is so sophisticated that as soon as governments and companies update their security networks, the AI ​​systems will adapt to find other hacking methods.

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Online servers, a treasure trove of personal data, are like a house with many doors, Lee says. If a hacker comes through one of her doors, online security professionals must work to secure the other doors while fixing the weaknesses that allowed the breach in the first place.

Mr Farnworth said the security breach may have gone undetected had the government not carried out an overhaul of online security in 2022.

The government is working with the Canadian Cyber ​​Security Center and law enforcement agencies to investigate the incident.

The center said in a statement that it works closely with the Canadian government, police, national security officials and the private sector to protect against cyber threats.

The center will share advice and guidance on cybersecurity best practices, threat information about potential cyber risks, and alerts about systems that may have been compromised.

The Information and Privacy Commission is also aware of this breach.

Privacy Commissioner Michael Harvey was not available for an interview Thursday, but a spokesperson for his office said the government is committed to providing updates on the breach as they become available. Ta.

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The department said public authorities are required to notify individuals and report to OIPC about privacy breaches that may result in significant harm.

Government officials received an email late Wednesday from Public Services Director Shannon Salter informing them of the cybersecurity attack.

Mr Farnworth said there was no indication that the cybersecurity breach was connected to the hack that hit retailer London Drugs and forced stores to close for more than a week.

Falcon said the government's slow release of information stands in sharp contrast to London Drugs' response to the cybersecurity incident, which notified customers within days of the cyber hack and provided regular updates. He said that there is.

However, London Drugs president Clint Mahlman apologized for not releasing the information until days after the incident, saying the approach was recommended to avoid influencing the attackers. Stated.

“Cybersecurity professionals are aware of certain behaviors by certain threat actors because they deal with these people all the time,” he said.

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Mahlman said hackers look at media coverage of cyberattacks to assess whether companies are aware of the scope of the breach and their ability to recover.

With files from The Canadian Press

kderosa@postmedia.com

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