A cyberattack on a Canadian teachers’ union gave cybercriminals access to sensitive data of the union’s members.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation has disclosed that it fell victim to a ransomware attack six months ago which led to the compromise of personal information of its members. The union is yet to disclose the exact number of affected individuals but stated that both former and current members are impacted.
Founded in 1919, the OSSTF has more than 60,000 members across Ontario – Canada’s most populous province. Its long list of members includes public high school teachers, occasional teachers, educational assistants, continuing education teachers and instructors, early childhood educators, psychologists, secretaries, social workers, plant support personnel, university support staff, and many others in the field of education.
The attack took place between May 25 and May 30 this year when an unauthorized third party accessed and encrypted OSSTF’s systems, the teachers’ union said in a media statement. The attack was detected by OSSTF’s IT department five days after the initial intrusion.
