Cybersecurity attacks lead to closure of B.C. government employee database

The B.C. government has closed a public database that listed the names and work contact details of all provincial employees.

According to the Ministry of Citizen Services, the directory was created to allow contact with government employees, but has now become a major cybersecurity threat.

“We fend off hundreds of cybersecurity attacks each day, and that risk has been increasing over the past few months as AI tools make it faster and easier to harvest public information and create more convincing, targeted messages and scripts,” the ministry said.

“Given the increasing cyber threat environment, we received proactive advice from law enforcement partners, including the RCMP, to take this action.”

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The ministry said that Canadian Centre for Cyber Security guidance states phishing remains a leading technique used by cybercriminals to infiltrate networks, install malware or ransomware, and steal data.

“Through the directory, publicly available employee contact information was able to be collected and used to support phishing, impersonation, and other social engineering attacks,” the ministry said.

“This change moves B.C. closer to a lower-exposure model while maintaining authenticated internal access for government employees and established contact channels for the public and media.”

The government plans on creating an updated contact directory page including senior executive contact information for all government ministries.

The updated version will direct users to ministry, service, and media contacts, while reducing the public exposure of individual employee contact information and associated cybersecurity risks.

Jody Toor, the B.C. Conservative party’s critic for government services, told Global B.C. that she was opposed to the move.