The Town of Huntsville is currently investigating a cybersecurity incident that occurred on March 10, 2024. In response to this incident, the Town immediately enacted its incident response protocol and engaged cybersecurity experts to investigate. The impact of the event resulted in service disruptions as systems were brought offline as a precautionary measure.
The Municipality can now confirm that the event was a ransomware attack that impacted the Town’s network and systems.
Although the Town can confirm that its systems were infiltrated and that some data was compromised, it is unclear at this time whether or not the impacted data includes personal information.
“We are working diligently with our experts, and the authorities to determine the nature and extent of the impacted data. This process will involve a thorough review and validation of what data was comprised by our cyber experts,” notes Chief Administrative Officer, Denise Corry. “Cybersecurity incidents require forensic investigation, with multiple teams involved and we anticipate this process to take several weeks to complete.”
Once the investigation, which includes a thorough review and validation of the impacted data, is complete, if it is determined that personal information was compromised, affected individuals will be directly notified as soon as possible
“The community can be assured that we are working efficiently and effectively to determine the extent of the breach and will provide updates as soon as we are able,” confirms Mayor Nancy Alcock. “The Town recognizes that the community will have many questions regarding the details of the attack and, while the investigation continues, there is information that we can share and information that will not be divulged due to security concerns.”
The Town remains committed to transparency and it is our priority to keep you informed as we cooperate with the authorities in this investigation.
How did the ransomware attack happen?
The Town has cybersecurity measures in place and while the municipality takes regular action to update and secure our systems, cybercrime continues to advance and is becoming more common. In response to this incident, our team immediately enacted our incident response protocol and took steps to secure our network against further unauthorized activity. The investigation into how this incident occurred is still underway and remains unknown at this time.
What is an Incident Response Protocol?
The Town’s cybersecurity measures included a strategy to deal with a cyber event if the municipality was faced with that type of incident. It allowed the Town to act quickly, connect immediately with cybersecurity experts and authorities, prevent any further unauthorized activity, and communicate swiftly with the community.
Did the Municipality pay the ransom? If so, how much?
This matter is currently under investigation and for security reasons, we cannot provide further details.
How is the Town preventing this from happening again?
Throughout this incident, the Town has reviewed and continued to strengthen our systems to mitigate future risk and increase recovery resilience. Once the investigation is complete, we will be working alongside our cybersecurity experts to build on lessons learned.
When will the Town be fully operational?
The Town of Huntsville has been working diligently to restore and recover from this cybersecurity incident. As we strengthen our systems and implement new measures, we will continue to provide updates on our progress at Huntsville.ca.
Is there any impact to Property Tax Payments?
There is no impact to our ability to collect payments and property tax payments are still due by March 28 at 4:30 p.m.
As the investigation continues, the Municipality wants to assure the community that we are dedicated to protecting and restoring our Town’s services safely and securely.
“:We would like to thank the community for their patience and understanding while this matter is under investigation.” the town said in a media release.
