The Town of Huntsville is still restoring operations and investigating after a cybersecurity incident was discovered on Sunday, March 10. Though the town’s internal network was breached, town officials said it appears no sensitive information, including personal data, has been compromised.
The cyberattack shut down municipal operations early last week, including Town Hall and the library, and forced several municipal meetings to be rescheduled as cybersecurity specialists investigated. In order to secure its network against further “unauthorized activity,” the town has shuttered some online services and systems, such as the use of public computers and debit and credit machines at the library, as well as some staff and council email addresses, as a precautionary measure. Last Wednesday, Town Hall reopened in limited capacity.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because municipalities have increasingly been targets of cyberattacks in recent years. This is the second municipality in Ontario to report a cybersecurity incident in recent weeks, following a Feb. 25 cyberattack on the City of Hamilton.
Since 2019, municipalities across the country have been victims of cyberattacks: from WestLake-Gladstone, Man., to Saint John, N.B., to Durham Region, Ont. Between 2020 and 2021, scams and fraud jumped 130 per cent, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
Municipalities in particular are attractive to hackers because they typically have access to large sums of money and they store people’s private data through bylaw and permitting services. Municipalities may also lack the resources to hire a dedicated IT expert on staff.
Hackers tend to take control of municipalities’ data through social engineering attacks, such as phishing. For example, fraudsters may email a municipal employee with a malicious link and when they click on it, malware is installed that blocks access to internal networks—unless a ransom is paid. This type of cybersecurity incident, known as a ransomware attack, is what recently rocked Hamilton.
Although it’s unclear what the source and nature of the Huntsville attack was, the Town of Huntsville said in a statement an investigation is underway, with a team of cybersecurity specialists at the helm.
The town noted that the investigation is in its preliminary stages, and said it was too soon to elaborate on details of the incident. “The Town has reported the incident to the appropriate authorities. Therefore, the details we are able to provide at this time are limited,” said the town in a statement.
“The cybersecurity specialists are assisting with containment and recovery from this incident, as well as to identify the cause and extent of it.”
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