The Canadian government declared that two of its contractors have been hacked, exposing sensitive information belonging to an undisclosed number of government employees.
The breaches which occurred last month impacted Brookfield Global Relocation Services (BGRS) and SIRVA Worldwide Relocation & Moving Services, both providers of relocation services to Canadian government employees.
Government-related information stored on compromised BGRS and SIRVA Canada systems dates back to 1999, and it belongs to a broad spectrum of affected individuals, including members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Canadian Armed Forces personnel, and Government of Canada employees.
The incident has not been attributed to any group, but the LockBit ransomware gang has already claimed responsibility for breaching SIRVA’s systems and leaked what they claim to be archives containing 1.5TB of stolen documents.
LockBit has also made public the contents of failed negotiations with alleged SIRVA representatives.
After being notified of the contractors’ security breaches on October 19th, the government reported the breach to relevant authorities, including the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
Details regarding the impacted individuals, including the number of affected employees, are not yet determined. However, preliminary assessments suggest that those who used relocation services since 1999 may have had their personal and financial information exposed.
Services such as credit monitoring or reissuing valid passports that may have been compromised will be provided to current and former members of the public service, RCMP, and the Canadian Armed Forces who have relocated with BGRS or SIRVA Canada during the last 24 years.
Individuals potentially affected by this data breach are urged to take precautionary measures, including updating login credentials, enabling multi-factor authentication, and monitoring online financial and personal accounts for unusual activity.
Those suspecting unauthorized access to their accounts must also contact their financial institution, local law enforcement, and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) immediately.
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