Cyber attack compromises child-welfare agency

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This article was published 23/11/2019 (1869 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Southern First Nations Network of Care was the victim of a major cyber attack Thursday, compromising the organization’s computer systems and throwing into doubt the security of confidential data for roughly 5,000 children in the child-welfare agency’s care.

The SFNNC, which has a total of 10 Child and Family Services agencies under its umbrella, held a press conference Sunday afternoon to announce the data breach.

The agency said the RCMP’s cyber crimes division is investigating.

As it currently stands, the agency’s 1,000 employees do not have access to their computer systems.

“We want to make sure we communicate with our service providers. We have families that are providing services to our children in care. We need our care providers to be well-informed of this situation and (know) that agencies are doing what they need to do to ensure that business occurs to the best of our ability,” said Clemene Hornbrook, acting CEO of SFNNC.

“Quite simply, we do not have access to any of our computers. Our finance department in each agency have made the appropriate steps. They’ve contacted the appropriate people. They’re doing what they need to do on the ground.”

The cyber attack happened in the early morning hours of Thursday, Nov. 21, the agency said.

The SFNNC’s IT department, which has recently experienced a “turnover in leadership,” quickly implemented their “disaster recovery plan,” the agency said.

“They identified the issue, they isolated the issue, they tried to cleanse it as best they could. They tried to restore from backup… The support for the servers we have on site were unable to remedy the issue, so the cyber crimes division was contacted immediately,” said Justin Richard, IT manager of Sandy Bay CFS.

Richard said it remains unclear if the data was accessed or compromised by an outside party. It also remains unclear whether the agency will be able to recover the data.

“It’s under investigation and we’ve been asked to stand back from it at this time in order for them to make sure all the data is safe and sound. At this point we do believe it is. (We’re) not 100 per cent certain, but I don’t think anybody could be at this point,” Richard said.

The agency declined comment when asked if the data is being held at ransom.

Of the 10 CFS agencies under the SFNNC’s umbrella, eight of them were impacted by the cyber attack. Those agencies are: Animikii Ozoson CFS, Anishinaabe CFS, Dakota Ojibway CFS, Intertribal CFS, Peguis CFS, Sagkeeng CFS, Southeast CFS and West Region CFS.

Sandy Bay Ojibway CFS and Chilld and Family All Nations Coordinated Response Network did not have their systems breached during the cyber attack.

Representatives from SFNNC met with the Province of Manitoba Saturday and requested emergency financial assistance in order to continue its operations. At this point, the agency has not received emergency funding, but it said it hopes to meet with the province again Monday.

“Right now, all of the financial teams have implemented their contingency plans… We are going to do our best that we’re able to maintain the operational needs of the agency in terms of foster parents. There may or may not be some difficulty with that, but we’re going to continue to task manage those issues,” Hornbrook said.

“That’s why we’re calling on the Province of Manitoba to provide emergency financial support to the eight agencies to deal with this crisis.”

Hornbrook was unable to provide a total dollar amount the network is seeking, saying each individual agency that’s been affected is assessing their financial needs at this time and will present the province with those figures in the near future.

In total, the SFNNC has jurisdiction over 36 communities. The agency said it has never been the victim of an attack like this before.

The cyber attack comes six weeks out from one of the largest-ever reforms to the Indigenous CFS system. Bill C-92 is set to result in a massive overhaul of Indigenous CFS throughout Canada.

Margaret Swan, chairperson of the SFNNC board of directors, said she does not believe the cyber attack will impact the impending changes to Indigenous child-welfare in Manitoba.

Swan said the agency is limited in what information it can reveal about the cyber attack since the matter is now under criminal investigation.

“I just want to ensure we limit what we put out there publicly. We do have a situation at hand with respect to our IT. It’s very serious and because of the fact this is under investigation, I would prefer (us) not to answer too much more in detail with respect to specifics with this whole cyber attack,” Swan said.

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe