A “ransomware” attack has hit a Toronto company that resells sensitive personal and business data collected by the Ontario government. Pay up or we will not return access, the attackers told ESC Corporate Services on Oct. 25.No payment has been made and the company was locked out of its system for more than a week. The ESC system interfaces with the Government of Ontario records portal. If you have ever incorporated a company or leased a car, that is the data at issue, the Star has found.“The request was for a payment in exchange for keys to decrypt encrypted files,” said ESC spokesman Shea Haverstock, who confirmed the attack to the Star. He said ESC is conducting a “forensic” analysis and has not contacted police.A provincial government spokesperson said the province is aware of the attack and is monitoring the situation. In the wake of what happened to ESC, the government services ministry is working on “enhancing its current cybersecurity practices.”During the reporting of this story, ESC posted a note on its website saying the “outage” it was dealing with had been resolved. No details were provided as to what happened.Both the province and ESC said they do not believe the data was compromised, but did not explain to the Star how this was determined.At risk in the attack were the millions of bits of data related to individuals and businesses that the Ontario government collects. The province licenses ESC and two other companies to resell the information to law firms, banks and other institutions, and the public at a profit. The terms of contracts are not made public but these companies sell access to such things as corporate and lien searches for roughly $100 per search.Among the information resold and subject of this attack were corporation records, including names and home addresses of directors, and the registration of liens for automobile, boat and equipment leases. In addition to the search ser ...
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