Oshawa beefing up its cybersecurity program

The City of Oshawa is beefing up its cybersecurity defences to ensure it is not victimized by cyber attacks.

Cyber attacks, such as the attacks on fuel suppliers in the U.S. southeast earlier this year by hackers that temporarily crippled the ability to deliver power – and information breaches that erode public trust have increased in recent months and governments, companies and educational institutions have been devoting more money and resources into fighting back.

Ontario Power Generation has renewed its partnership with Durham College and Ontario Tech University on technology programs – including cyber security – and the college recognized the importance of cybersecurity last year when it launched their fourth applied research centre: the Centre for Cybersecurity Innovation.

Durham Region was hacked earlier this year with reports that paramedic service documents were posted online and the City of Oshawa had to deal with its own security breach earlier this year when an email with sensitive information was “inadvertently” leaked to senior staff.

With the City recognizing that cybersecurity incidents may lead to “month-long service disruptions, service restoration costs in the millions of dollars and data breaches” it has agreed to pump an additional $100,000 into “improved” cybersecurity infrastructure.

The money will come from the Information Technology Reserve fund.