Are Ontario Municipalities Safe Against Cyber Attacks?

The 905er Podcast

The City of Hamilton saw itself come under attack by cybercriminals in early 2024. City Council, apps, phone communication and the city's library system were all inaccessible or unavailable. Criminals used malware to hold the city hostage until it paid a ransom. The city did not pay and eventually, and order was restored.

This is not an isolated event though. Toronto Public Library saw its system become unusable for a year due to a cyber attack, and numerous small municipalities in Ontario have reported similar events over the years. This isn't going away. Cyber attacks and ransomware are the new norm. A common feature that governments and businesses alike need to face reality about. In the modern age, if you possess data you're a target, and everyone possesses data. Municipalities are ripe targets though, as they have a treasure trove of our data stored. Everything including tax records, business files, social insurance numbers, and credit cards, chances are goes through our municipalities at one point. So naturally we asked the question, are our municipalities up to the task of securing our personal information?

To answer the question we invited on to the podcast Seyed Hejazi of MNP. Seyed is a cyber security expert who is hired by government institutions as well as private enterprises to consult on their cyber security needs. We spoke with him today to find out exactly how large of a problem this is, what is needed to secure our data from cyber criminals, and are our municipalities capable of meeting the challenge.

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Nicholas Paul: sound editing.

The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

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