Town of Didsbury victimized by ransomware attack

The Town of Didsbury says it became the victim of a cyber attack one week ago.  

According to a Media Release posted Friday (March 26) on the town’s website, fraudsters encrypted Didsbury’s information systems with ransomware and made a ransom demand to decrypt the system on Sunday, March 21st.

Didsbury’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ethan Gormer says fire services for the town, along with water and waste management were not impacted by the attack as they are isolated for security purposes.  So far there is no indication that any personal information was accessed by the hackers.  

Gormer says the Town of Didsbury is working diligently to identify whether any information was removed from its system or inappropriately accessed.  

“The security of our systems and the information of our residents and businesses is a very high priority for us and we will be implementing additional security measures to safeguard our network,” Gorner says.

Didsbury Mayor Rhonda Hunter didn’t say if the ransom that was demanded by the hackers had been paid but she made the following statement in the Media Release.  

“We want to assure our residents and businesses that we are taking this malicious and illegal breach extremely seriously.  We are working closely with and under the direction of cybersecurity experts that specialize in these types of attacks to restore the integrity of our systems.

We have reported the incident to law enforcement and to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta. We thank our residents and businesses for their patience and continued support during this situation, and I want to thank our administrative team for working around the clock with security experts to restore and secure systems.”

The Town of Didsbury will provide updates on the matter as material information becomes available.

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