B.C.’s Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth Thursday (May 9) assured British Columbians that a series of “sophisticated” cybersecurity incidents involving government networks have not compromised sensitive information.
But he also said police are among the agencies investigating the incidents, whose instigator remains unknown.
“I can tell you that at this time, there is no evidence of any sensitive information such as health records, for example, either being accessed or compromised,” Farnworth said, adding that later these incidents were not a ransom-ware attack.
He added that Canadian Centre for Cyber Security and “other agencies including police” have been involved.
Farnworth made these comments Thursday morning, hours after Premier David Eby had issued a statement Wednesday evening announcing that recently, “the Government of B.C. has identified sophisticated cybersecurity incidents involving government networks.”
When asked what “recently” meant, Farnworth said that he could not be more specific, but promised additional information at a later date.
“What I can tell you that this was a very sophisticated attempt and we have been told by the security experts that the money that was spent in 2022 in terms of upgrades to the system had not taken place, we would not have even known that the attempt was happening,” Farnworth said.
Several key questions, however, remain unanswered. They include any possible connection to cyberattacks currently happening in Europe and the possible involvement of foreign actors.
“There is no information on any of that,” Farnworth said. “That’s what the investigation obviously would involve.”
In late April, the Office of the Chief Information Officer started asking all provincial government employees to change passwords to protect emails and networks.
When reporters on May 2 asked Eby about OCIO’s direction, he confirmed it without offering any additional details.
“That’s all I can share at this stage, but they are doing some work on this issue, and I expect to have more to say soon.”
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That moment came on May 8 with his statement. But its timing prompted questions from the political opposition during Question Period Thursday (May 9).
B.C. United’s House Leader Todd Stone asked why this cyberattack “was concealed” for eight days, “only for the Premier to issue a quiet statement while everyone was busy watching last night’s Canucks game.”
Farnworth said government hid nothing.
“I’m trying to tell (Stone) that when an incident like this happens, the first thing that happens is the protection of the system, the protection of the information,” Farnworth said. “That’s done by technical experts, who work on the advice of the (Canadian Centre for Cyber Security). The reason they do that, is because if you go out and give information before that’s done, you actually end up compromising people’s information, potentially.”
Farnworth had told reporters earlier that the “first priority is to ensure the integrity of the system to protect system, protect the information.”
B.C. United Leader Kevin Falcon picked up Stone’s criticism during his media availability. While nobody should be surprised that government has suffered a cyberattack, Falcon said government has not shown enough transparency.
“It builds trust and, unfortunately, the approach they are taking betrays trust.”
One question concerns any connection between the attack on government’s network and the cybersecurity incident that had shuttered more than 80 London Drugs locations across Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and B.C.
“To the best of my knowledge, it has no connection to the London Drug incident,” Eby said on May 2.
Farnworth echoed this comment Thursday.
“Obviously, there is a thorough investigation involving a number of agencies underway, but we don’t have any information at this point as to whether or not it was related to what happened.”
Government said it fends off 1.5 billion unauthorized access attempts to its systems every day, adding that the threat is growing in size and complexity.
The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security said in a statement that it is aware of what it calls a “cyber incident affecting the Government of British Columbia” but declined to give additional details.
“The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, part of the Communications Security Establishment Canada, generally does not comment on specific cyber security incidents,” it reads. “However, we can say that we are working with officials in British Columbia to support their efforts to mitigate the incident.”
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