Greater Napanee Town Council received a report during their meeting this week reviewing and making recommendations coming out of the cyber incident earlier this year.
In January 2024, a cyber attack compromised the town’s internal servers and services. On January 10, hackers accessed the town’s backup server remotely, stole files, and started encrypting servers. By January 11, staff discovered the issue when they couldn’t access systems and found encrypted files with a ransom note. They notified the cyber security insurer and the police, shut down all IT operations, and brought in a cyber security team to manage recovery and investigation.
Passwords were reset, multifactor authentication enabled, and staff were reissued laptops with secure access. The investigation identified the ransomware entry point and confirmed no further contact with the hackers or release of stolen data. Ongoing monitoring ensures all systems are now secure and operational.
The report went on to say “No ransom has been paid and, given the nature of the data exfiltrated, it is highly unlikely Staff will recommend paying any future ransom demand for this breach.”
Council approved the purchase and single sourcing of the required cyber security services in accordance with the 2024 approved operation budget at a cost of $46,731.72 and service setup one time fee of $4,293.31. They also approved a budget amended to support the continued hosting of Town servers at HostedBizz at an additional operating cost of $4,500 per month, to be funded from reserves at year end if the costs cannot be accommodated through the operating or capital budget.
Councillor Mick Schenk was in favour of the upgrade to their cybersecurity.
Mayor Terry Richardson shared his thoughts with council before the motion was passed.
Written by Emily Chatwood
