The Canadian government reported that two of its contractors were hacked, resulting in the breach of data belonging to government employees.
These breaches occurred last month and affected Brookfield Global Relocation Services (BGRS) and SIRVA Worldwide Relocation & Moving Services , both of which provide services to Canadian government employees
Government-related information stored in the compromised BGRS and SIRVA Canada systems dates back to 1999 and belongs to various individuals, including members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Canadian Armed Forces personnel, and employees of the Government of Canada .
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While the Canadian government has yet to attribute the incident to a specific hacking group, the ransomware gang LockBit has already claimed responsibility for the SIRVA attack. In fact, the hackers have leaked files that they claim contain stolen documents (1.5 TB).
The LockBit gang has also published the content of the failed negotiations with alleged representatives of SIRVA.
“Sirva.com says all their information is worth only $1 million. We have leaked over 1.5 TB of documents + 3 full CRM backups for branches (eu, na and au),” the ransomware group states on data .
After being informed of the contractors' breaches on October 19, the Government of Canada notified relevant authorities, including the Canadian Centre for Cybersecurity and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
The stolen data is currently under investigation and no specific details about the individuals affected have been released, but initial estimates suggest that those who used migration services since 1999 may have been affected by the data.
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“The Government of Canada is not awaiting the results of this analysis and is taking a precautionary approach to support those potentially affected,” it said in a statement released Friday.
“Services such as credit monitoring or the reissuance of valid passports that may have been compromised, will be provided to current and former members of the public sector, RCMP and the Canadian armed forces who have used the services of BGRS or SIRVA Canada over the past 24 years“.
“Additional details regarding the services that will be offered and how to access them will be provided as soon as possible.“.
Individuals affected by this data breach are urged to take security measures, including updating their login credentials , enabling multi-factor authentication, and monitoring online financial and personal accounts for unusual activity.
Those who suspect unauthorized access to accounts should immediately contact their bank, local law enforcement authorities, and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC).
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The above protection measures are necessary because the potential consequences of a data breach for the affected individuals are multiple. Initially, people may face problems with protecting their privacy. Their personal data, such as names, addresses, social security numbers and banking information, can be used by cybercriminals to commit fraud, identity theft, etc. This can have serious implications for the financial and personal security of Canadian government employees.
Source: www.bleepingcomputer.com
