Montreal library to close until Tuesday due to daycare data breach

Are new daycare spots enough? Tina Montreuil of McGill University analyzes the government’s announcement that more temporary daycare spots are coming.

MONTREAL — A large library in Montreal will be closed until Tuesday morning in the wake of a hacking attack on Quebec's public daycare registration website.

Quebec's Treasury Board Secretariat issued a recommendation on Friday evening urging all government bodies using software developed by the same company as the daycare registration site to immediately suspend access if they store sensitive information.

The Bibliotheque et Archives nationales du Quebec says it has temporarily shut down some of its computer systems -- following the treasury board's recommendation, adding its main library in Montreal and some of its online services have been closed as a result.

The Treasury Board declined to provide a list of online government services that have been closed as a result of the recommendation.

The personal data of 5,000 parents and children was compromised in the hack, which was first reported on Tuesday.

The Treasury Board says the hack took place due to unspecified vulnerabilities in the software.

The website was developed by Montreal-based InMedia Technologies, according to a client list posted on its website.

The company did not immediately respond to request for comment on the situation.

Other InMedia clients include several cities in Canada and France, the Department of National Defence and UNESCO.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2021.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.