Municipality Updates on Ransomware Incident

On Sunday, December 9, 2018, the Municipality of Wawa became the victim of a sophisticated cyber-attack in which the Town’s network was illegally accessed and infected with ransomware. The malware was able to encrypt a number of Town systems rendering them unusable. Although the Municipality’s IT staff worked quickly to disable the network, a number of the Municipal systems were confirmed to be impacted, and the Municipality received a ransom demand in exchange for a decryption key. 

Critical functions, such as waste and water management systems, were not affected and continued to be operational, as the IT infrastructure for those services were deliberately isolated for security reasons. 

The Municipality of Wawa is committed to protecting the privacy of all citizens and as a result it worked with a Third Party cybersecurity firm and law enforcement to address the incident. All systems were restored and secured. Investigations have not found any evidence of a privacy breach. 

The Municipality of Wawa will continue with its investigations, and provide updates, as needed. 

This Media Release