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Cyber Attack on the City of Woodstock

"The City had a breach of it's computer network, in which it appears that a virus has entered our system, that prevents the City from accessing our email and our data." 

UPDATE: The Woodstock Police Service has issued the following statement on the Cyber Attack. 

The Police Service detected the attack and took immediate steps to contain it in order to minimize potential impact. As part of the response, some systems were taken offline and the Police Service is focusing resources to fully investigate and recover systems. The City of Woodstock Police Service will have more information to share on Tuesday, and we appreciate your patience at this time.

We can confirm that all emergency services remain operational at this time and none of the emergency services have been impacted. The City of Woodstock’s Police Service email system is currently not available, but should you require immediate / urgent service please feel free to call or visit the Police station in person during regular business hours. However, we ask that you only attend the police station if it is an urgent situation. We can confirm that regular updates will follow as they become available


WOODSTOCK - The City of Woodstock is currently managing what appears to be a Cyber attack. 

Woodstock Police are investigating and have called in the OPP for assistance. CAO David Creery says the attack happened on Saturday.

"The City had a breach of it's computer network, in which it appears that a virus has entered our system, that prevents the City from accessing our email and our data." 

Creery says the attack does appear to be similar to what recently happened in the City of Stratford. 

"The breach does have the appearance of a ransom, but we can confirm that, at this point we have not received a ransom demand."

The City of Stratford ended up paying $75,000 in bit coin after they were attacked earlier this year. 

He goes on to say, there does not appear to be a threat to the public at this time. 

"The City has retained the appropriate personnel and experts in this field to resolve this situation and they have been working on this for two days now. They have indicated that going through the network and the systems and all the end point stations, that they have not found any evidence of any data having been accessed or transferred, so at this point, we do not believe that there has been any breach in that regard. If anyone has any concerns, it is always good practice to check with your accounts to make sure their is no unusual traffic. We have not found any evidence that their is any concern in that regard." 

Creery says that right now the impact has been limited to City staff being able to see emails, receive emails and send emails and access our files.

"The City web site works, it continues to work and it will continue to work and it is hosted externally, so it is not part of our network. Other systems in which people conduct business with the City, such as the legend recreation programming, anyone who is registered for recreation programming through the City web site is absolutely fine, it is all done through a 3rd party. No impact on that, it continues to work and will continue to work going forward. All City services are continuing to function, so transit, water, waste water treatment, all services continue as normal. The biggest impact is that if you send us an email, we cannot see it and will not be able to respond. In terms of some services, their will be some impacts, in which we will have to give hard copy receipts as opposed to being able to electronically send a receipt."

Creery says they are continuing to conduct business as normal and our working on a recovery. That work continues and they will be implementing a new trusted network in the next couple of days. 

We will continue to follow this developing story. 

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