About 1.5 billion attempts made each day to access government systems, says B.C. minister
Cybercriminals may have gained access to British Columbia government workers’ information through a cyberattack on the province's networks in April, according to a report.
The cyberattack hit 22 B.C. government email inboxes containing sensitive personal information on 19 employees, according to reports.
"A handful of these inboxes contain sensitive personal information on 19 individuals. These were employee files, and with one exception being an employee who had family information on their inbox," said Mike Farnworth, minister of public safety, on Monday, according to The Canadian Press (CP).
Investigators had not identified any misuse of the information the criminals may have accessed. Also, there is no indication that the general public's information was compromised.
Farnworth said that no cabinet members were affected by the incident. The CP report, however, did not provide further details about the attack or the affected workers.
Meanwhile, the government has notified affected employees. They will be receiving credit monitoring and help with identity protection.
B.C. upgraded its security systems in 2022, and it was those updates that detected the attack, reported CP.
The global cybersecurity workforce grew 8.7% to 5.5 million people between 2022 and 2023, but that does not completely address the technology skills gap, according to a report from Mercer. That shortage causes a lot of concern for employers, especially when it comes to cybersecurity.
‘1.5 billion attempts a day to access government systems’
B.C. began investigating an attempted breach of its systems on April 10, noted CBC. The incident was reported to the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, which supports the government as part of Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSE). CSE is Canada's national cryptological agency.
Since then, two more attempts were made to hit government systems, resulting in an order for public service workers to change their passwords.
The hack is one of several recent cyber breaches in the province, including one at the First Nations Health Authority and an attack that forced retailer London Drugs to shut down stores across Western Canada for more than a week.
Overall, there are about 1.5 billion attempts a day by cybercriminals to access government systems, said Farnworth in the CP report, published on Yahoo! News.
And the Ministry of Citizen Services has a team of 76 people whose sole job is "ensuring the integrity and the security of the networks," he said.
Each ministry has its own staff dedicated to cyber issues, Farnworth added.
"We know that cyber attacks have been increasing not just here, but in fact, it's a global issue, both in terms of governments and the private sector," he said.
Overall, the percentage of IT budgets dedicated to cybersecurity is growing, according to a previous report.