Email inboxes, ‘sensitive personal information’ accessed in B.C. government hack

The B.C. government has confirmed sensitive digital information was compromised during a cyberattack detected in its networks on April 10.

In a message to government employees, head of the public service Shannon Salter said hackers may have accessed 22 email inboxes, some of which contained “sensitive personal information” on 19 people.

1:24 Minister explains why it took 2 weeks after cyberattack for province to notify employees

B.C. Public Service Minister Mike Farnworth is slated to provide an update on the attack at noon. Global News will stream the briefing here.

“These were employee personnel files, with one exception being an employee who had family information in their inbox,” Salter said.

“At this point in time, we have not identified that any sensitive information collected by government in the delivery of public services was accessed.”

Salter said the affected people have been notified.

1:57 B.C. cyberattack was likely state directed says province

The investigation hasn’t found evidence specific files were accessed or that the information was misused. The province is providing credit monitoring and identity protection services to those affected for two years.

The province has previously said it was confident the attack was led by a “state or state-sponsored actor.”

It has not specified which state could be responsible.

The government has also defended withholding information about the attack until early May, saying it needed to investigate the breach and shore up defences before revealing potential weaknesses in the system.

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