Second Ontario municipality reports cybersecurity incident within three weeks

Cyberattack in Huntsville under investigation The Town of Huntsville has a team investigating how it became the target of a cyberattack.

HUNTSVILLE, ONTARIO — The Town of Huntsville says its municipal office will remain closed for a second day today and some council meetings are being rescheduled as specialists investigate a cybersecurity incident.

The town in Ontario's Muskoka region says on its website it discovered the incident over the weekend and, at this time, it has no evidence that any sensitive data, including personal information, has been compromised.

However, the town has initiated its incident response protocol and says it has taken immediate steps to protect its network from further unauthorized activity.

The town says the precautionary measures have impacted some of the municipality's online services, but its library is expected to be open today after the incident shut it down on Monday.

Huntsville is the second Ontario municipality to report a cybersecurity incident in the last three weeks.

Officials in Hamilton said last week that they have engaged experts, insurers, lawyers and others in their efforts to completely restore the city's systems following a Feb. 25 attack.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 12, 2024.