The City of Richmond is warning personal information in emails might have been compromised following a security breach in the city’s IT system last month.
After “unusual and concerning activity” was noticed in its IT system on June 7, the city started investigating with the help of external cybersecurity experts.
However, a few days later, fraudulent emails were sent out claiming to be from city staff, municipal officials and Gateway Theatre staff.
The fraudulent emails seemed to have had attachments that could have installed malware onto computers.
“Due to the nature of the cyber-attack, at this time, the exact information that may have been in those emails cannot be confirmed,” the city said in an alert on its website. “However, in the interest of transparency, we want to inform the public that personal information may have been accessed.”
The city doesn’t know exactly what kind of information might have been accessed, but it might possibly include facility and program participant information, for example, contact details, birth dates as well as permit and licence application information such as addresses and phone numbers.
The city is cautioning people to make sure emails are from “@richmond.ca” or “@gatewaytheatre.com” email addresses.
The cyber breach has been reported to the RCMP and to the Office of the B.C. Information & Privacy Commissioner.
Anyone with questions on the security breach can contact the City of Richmond at [email protected] or at 604-373-7061 or 1-833-592-1672 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
