WINNIPEG – A child welfare agency said it has been the victim of a cyber-attack.
A spokesperson for Southern First Nations Network of Care said on Nov. 21 their system was infected with something called ‘ransom ware’ – a type of malware that threatens to release data or lock the data unless a ransom is paid.
“What we’ve been told from the people who are looking at it from an IT perspective is it’s a sophisticated cyber-attack,” said the spokesperson.
The spokesperson said the system is unusable.
The agency oversees 10 Child Family Services agencies that represent 36 Southern First Nations in Manitoba. The spokesperson said the files for eight of these agencies have been compromised.
“We don’t know who has that information, or how it's going to be utilized,” said Cora Morgan, the First Nation Family Advocate for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. “It’s a huge breach of confidentiality."
The welfare agency said it has a contingency plan in place so families and children can still access the services.
As for the compromised files, IT expert Matheiu Manaigre said if there are no backups of the files it will be very difficult to recover them.
He said its relatively easy to have files infected by a ransom-ware. All it takes is one wrong click.
“It's hard to put the blame on the user because social engineering is the new threat and so there are people out there that try to look real,” Manaigre said. “You might get an email that comes from "Netflix" or you think it comes from Netflix, but really it’s a way to get ransom-ware on your computer so it’s tricky."
Manitoba RCMP said it is aware of the incident and the Integrated Technological Crime unit is investigating.
The province also said it is offering technical support to the agency.
-with files from CTV’s Michelle Gerwing
