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By rdnewsNOW Staff

155 accounts compromised

Albertans reminded to protect information online following account breaches

Dec 22, 2022 | 12:35 PM

Following a recent breach of several individual accounts, the provincial government is reminding Albertans to protect their personal information when working online.

They say cybersecurity monitoring of the Alberta government digital systems detected suspicious activities which, when investigated by cybersecurity officials, revealed that 155 individual accounts had been compromised. They confirm Alberta government services were not compromised.

“Albertans can be confident that our cybersecurity measures are protecting access to government services. We are working with individual account owners, other government ministries and law enforcement to address this incident. As a result of our due diligence, we were able to identify this breach, intervene and take action. While Alberta’s government uses leading-edge technology to maintain the integrity of our online systems, this is a timely reminder to always take steps to protect yourself and secure your online accounts as they are a critical part of maintaining online services,” said Nate Glubish, minister of technology and innovation.

Officials state these accounts, used by Albertans to access government services, were immediately suspended. Upon further analysis, they say it was determined that 109 of these had submitted fraudulent student aid claims, which were then frozen and are being investigated.

Government representatives say users whose accounts have been suspended are being notified by officials via email and regular mail and will be advised on how to re-establish their verified accounts.

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“I want to reassure all learners who use our student aid system that we take your security and privacy seriously. This breach was detected early, limiting its impact and maintaining the integrity of our systems. As we investigate the incident, I encourage all Student Aid Alberta users to ensure their accounts are secured with strong passwords and multi-factor authentication,” said Demetrios Nicolaides, minister of advanced education.

Officials say that scammers are becoming more sophisticated every day and can make their attempts to get your personal information look legitimate. However, they advise Albertans that the government will never call or text requesting for a password or other login information.

The Alberta government says they have several online resources to help identify potential cyber threats as well as information on how to protect personal data online, including:

• Using a complex password that is unique to an account and not sharing it with anyone
• Avoiding reusing the same password for other accounts, including online banking and email accounts
• Enabling multi-factor authentication on the email address associated with a verified account to help secure an email account and help prevent an attacker from using it to change the password to the verified account
• Keeping devices and security software up to date

To help identify, protect against and address potential threats, the Alberta government says they leverage tools such as multi-factor authentication, encryption, artificial intelligence, fraud detection and automation technologies to protect online systems.

Since the province launched verified accounts, they say more than two million accounts have been created with more than one million actively in use.