City of Hamilton says no personal info shared following another data breach

Hamilton city hall is seen in this file photo. (CTV News Toronto)

The City of Hamilton says it has experienced another data breach.

In a news release on Wednesday, city officials say internal data was used in an unauthorized setting.

However, unlike a breach the city experienced last year at the hands of a ransomware attack, they say this latest one was internal only.

“Residents do not need to take any action as there is no threat to people’s personally identifiable information being shared in the public domain,” the release said.

“The breach is considered internal as information was incorrectly shared among city departments.”

The release explained that city staff had been copying resident information and data from their recreation software into a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.

The city says nearly 134,000 records were imported into the CRM with the intent of “minimizing the need for property owners to re-enter their address information as part of the Vacant Unit Tax declaration portal.”

However, they say that during the transfer process, some data became “misaligned” between the old and new databases.

The release said the city became aware of the mismatch on Feb. 25 this year and all address data was deleted from the new system.

No financial data was involved in the data transfer, the city said, and no personally identifiable information was publicly shared.

Despite that, the city says it has notified the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC) of the internal data breach and residents can submit a complaint with the IPC if they want to.