Centre Wellington Township is answering questions more than three months after a paid parking system in Elora was hit by a malware attack. The new paid parking system for visitors went online on May 8. Just over a month later, on June 10, the city learned that some people who scanned a QR code that was meant to send them to a payment portal, instead took them to a pornography website. Since then, the township has parted ways with Alpha Parking Solutions, a third-party contractor hired to run the program. CTV News has requested an interview with the township multiple times since the issue first came to light. On Wednesday, a top township official spoke with a reporter. “We were in correspondence with Alpha and we had to make a relatively quick decision to ensure that we’re protecting our residents, businesses and visitors,” Adam Gilmore, managing director of community services for Centre Wellington Township, said. A letter addressed to the Centre Wellington Township from Alpha was shared on social media over the weekend. It blamed the township for shutting down the parking payment system for the rest of summer. “The system was immediately isolated, and it was determined that no attempts to breach the system had occurred,” the letter said. According to Alpha, within hours the system was functioning as normal. “The issue was identified and resolved within four hours and continued to operate as normal managing data and processing payments,” the letter said. Centre Wellington Township had a different opinion and said the systems security was top of mind. “Based on the information we obtained from Alpha, we made the call that we were still not quite satisfied with the security controls that have been put in place,” Gilmore explained. According to Gilmore, after June 11th no more payments were made to Alpha Parking Solutions. The interview with Gilmore also revealed why the township chose Alpha Parking Solutions to handle its new parking system. “Alpha was providing services for Wellington County in this area, parking services. So, we had that familiarity with them through the county. So, that was the main decision in us going with them - was that they were already present in the community, and we felt as though that was a natural partnership that way.” Said Gilmore. With the system only in operation for one month, Gilmore said, it was a learning process. “We’re learning as we go. We’ve never implemented a paid parking program before here at the township, so absolutely, there have been some lessons learned through this.” The township said in total they spent $300,000 to implement the system and have recouped $144,00 though one month of operations. Gilmore said they have not abandoned the project and believes it will make back the initial investment and be a revenue driver for the township. “This is a program that we’re now planning on bringing back in-house here at the township, and it will be up and running again. We’re not sure exactly the timeline yet, but it’s only a matter of time and we will be recovering that cost and that will go towards funding the program,” Gilmore said.
