0:00
From administration to libraries to
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public works and everything a two-tier
0:05
government does, if you work or have
0:08
worked for Oxford County, you may
0:12
I'm very sorry. As the warden, I'm sorry
0:14
to staff uh that may have had their
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information compromised. Warden Marcus
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Ryan says the county now has reason to
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believe personal information of current
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and former employees may have been
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compromised in a cyber attack which the
0:28
county made public September 15th.
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Unfortunately, it's somewhat a reality
0:32
of of 2024, 2025, 2026 that this is
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going to happen. Um, IT experts have
0:38
been telling us all for years that these
0:40
things are going to happen to you. You
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need to prepare. Uh, thankfully we were
0:43
in the process of preparing. You can
0:45
never be prepared enough. Bad guys are
0:47
always going to find a way.
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The county says it's using third-party
0:50
cyber security experts in its forensic
0:53
investigation and to contain the breach.
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Now, just how deep this information
0:57
breach goes is not known, say county
1:00
officials. But as many as 4,000 people
1:03
may be affected, including 1,000 current
1:07
and another 3,000 former employees.
1:10
There are many more questions the county
1:12
cannot answer publicly for fear of
1:14
tipping off the criminals like who is
1:16
responsible, how it happened, and
1:18
whether ransom has been asked for. IT
1:21
expert Carmy Levy says right now much is
1:24
at stake for employees.
1:26
Much of this information is personal,
1:28
private, financial. It is incredibly
1:30
damaging if it falls into the wrong
1:32
hands. And now, now that it's been
1:34
weaponized that it's out there, it will
1:35
be used in ways like this indefinitely.
1:37
The risk doesn't just go away because
1:39
the headlines fade. These thousands of
1:42
current and former employees are going
1:44
to now face this risk for literally the
1:46
rest of their lives. Levy advises
1:48
employees to take full advantage of
1:50
credit monitoring and identity
1:52
protection services from the county.
1:54
Meanwhile, Ryan can't say what the
1:56
county's response is costing rateayers
1:59
except that so far it's within an
2:01
allocated budget for emergency
2:03
responses. But we will be on managing
2:05
this on an ongoing basis for months
2:07
because once somebody has gained access
2:09
uh whatever it is um you're continually
2:12
evaluating then what exactly did they
2:14
get access to? Brian Bicknell, CTV News.
