City of Ottawa says data breach affected some My ServiceOttawa users

The city says someone accessed email and physical addresses of about 2,500 residents in a breach of its online service portal. CTV’s Dylan Dyson reports.

The City of Ottawa says 2,454 residents were affected by a data breach related to their My ServiceOttawa accounts.

In a statement to CTV News Ottawa, Mishele Joanis, Director of ServiceOttawa, said the incident happened last month.

“An isolated system error occurred in the service request lookup tool within My ServiceOttawa on October 3 which allowed a user who knew a specific service request number to use a bot to access service requests linked to other accounts. Upon detection, staff immediately blocked access, contained the issue and prevented further unauthorized access,” Joanis said.

The city says the email address associated with the service requestor and the physical address related to the request were exposed. No financial information, passwords, or other sensitive information was accessed, according to the city.

“All required notifications have taken place, which includes notices to affected individuals and the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario,” said Joanis. “The City of Ottawa is committed to protecting personal information and maintaining secure services. This was an isolated incident within the service request lookup tool, and My ServiceOttawa remains secure.”

Joanis said Ottawa’s chief information security office and IT services conducted a detailed analysis throughout October to confirm the limited nature of exposure, improve processes and implement additional measures to minimize recurrence of similar incidents.

Affected residents received emails informing them of the breach. The city says affected residents should be alert for suspicious emails or messages that may use their email or physical addresses.

“Do not click on links or attachments from unknown senders,” the city says. “If you receive a message that appears to come from the City of Ottawa but seems unusual, contact us directly through official channels rather than replying to the message.”

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