How Manitoba businesses can stay safe from cyber attacks

Manitoba businesses are being urged to take precautions after the University of Winnipeg was forced to cancel classes and postpone exams following a cyber attack last week.

The situation continues to be investigated, but it’s unknown at this point if any personal information was leaked.

Matt Friesen, vice president of the Western Financial Group, said these types of incidents are becoming far more common.

“Statistics Canada would say that they’ve over doubled in the last five years, so from 2022 to 2018, cyber attacks have doubled in Canada,” he said in an interview with CTV Morning Live on Monday.

Friesen explained that a cyber attack usually means the data from a business has been compromised, adding that sometimes these situations involve a ransom.

He said that many small businesses think they are too small to be attacked by a cyber criminal; however, that is not actually the case.

“It doesn’t actually discriminate big or small [businesses]…with that said, you’re obviously going to hear about the bigger institutions in the news,” Friesen said.

“You’re not going to hear about the small mom and pop shop, you’ll hear more about the University of Winnipeg or Giant Tiger or the Toronto Library or Indigo.”

In order to protect yourself against a cyber attack, Friesen recommends that businesses have written policies in place for cyber security. He also recommends training employees.

“People, like us, as employees are the number one weakness still in businesses,” he said.

“So if you could create some awareness training or ask for protection or explain in lay people terms what’s in it for them as to why they should be careful...things like that.”

He added that password management and device security are also important, especially with more people working remotely.

“You need to be really careful, especially when on a public network. A lot of employees aren’t aware of that,” he said.

- With files from CTV’s Ainsley McPhail.