British Columbia, the westernmost province of Canada, has experienced "sophisticated cybersecurity incidents" that are thought to be the result of state-sponsored hackers targeting government networks, reports The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.
During a press briefing on Friday, Deputy Minister to the Premier Shannon Salter revealed that the threat actor tried three times to breach government systems. The series of cyberattacks began on April 10, with a second attempt detected on April 29, prompting a password change for all staff as a precautionary measure. A third attack was then discovered on May 6.
Details regarding the specific nature of the cyberattacks remain undisclosed. However, the perpetrators' efforts to conceal their activities have led authorities to suspect the involvement of a state-sponsored actor, according to Mike Farnworth, the province's public safety minister. As part of the ongoing inquiry into the incident, Salted informed the media that experts were examining 40 gigabytes of data and the incident response was being supported by Microsoft's Detection and Response Team (DART).
