BREAKING, 12:23 p.m. PT — The head of B.C.’s public service has announced that there is a high degree of confidence a state or state-sponsored actor attempted to breach government systems in a cyberattack.
Shannon Salter, head of the public service, announced that three separate attempts were made to breach government systems over the last month.
Salter said that investigations remain ongoing, and did not share which state could have been involved in the cyberattack or which systems were accessed.
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The B.C. government is providing an update Friday on the “sophisticated” cyberattack and attempted breach of provincial systems announced earlier this week.
Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth is set to host a public update at 1:45 p.m. PT.
Premier David Eby announced the cyberattack on Wednesday, saying the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security and other agencies including police are involved in the investigation.
Eby and Farnworth have both said there is no evidence that sensitive information, such as health data, has been compromised in the attack. Farnworth added there was no evidence the cyberattack succeeded in accessing the information and there had been no ransom demand.
The premier said last week that the province’s chief information officer had directed public service employees to change their passwords to “ensure the security of government email systems,” with another notification sent to workers on Wednesday.
The Opposition B.C. United party questioned why the government took a week to update the public about the cyberattack, given the password change notification last week.
Farnworth said cybersecurity experts advised that the priority was protecting the system and its information before going public, something that could potentially increase vulnerability to attacks.
He said the government has no information about who may be responsible.
Eby said, to his knowledge, the password changes last week weren’t connected to the recent cyberattack on London Drugs.
The pharmacy and retail chain based in Richmond, B.C., had to close all of its stores in Western Canada for a week in response, with the chain’s CEO remaining tight-lipped about the exact cause of the attack.
The B.C. Libraries Co-operative said last week that it was also targeted by a hacker who threatened to release user data if a ransom was not paid.