Municipality of Westlake-Gladstone Loses Nearly Half A Million Dollars In Cyber Attack

The Municipality of Westlake-Gladstone is reporting that a cyber attack has siphoned approximately $447,000 from the government's coffers.

The Municipality published a release on its website earlier this week stating that the attack began in December 2019 and lasted through the holiday season where electronic withdrawals of approximately $9,950 were made from its account at Stride Credit Union - with a method it claims nobody within the organization has authorization to use.

The Municipality says its server and network are tracked by Kelty Management Systems, which monitor for viruses and malware, and they have not been able to detect any suspicious activity on the administrative office server and network. The release states that Kelty is confident the Municipality's server and networks in the office are secure. Additionally, the Municipality is alleging that Stride's cooperation in determining how the money has been accessed has been limited.

Earlier today, the Credit Union sent out a release of its own stating that they were not consulted prior to the publication of the release and that the Municipality has made claims that are both inaccurate and untrue.

"We were surprised and somewhat taken aback by the statements that have been made about Stride in the news release," said Stride Credit Union CEO, Brent Budz. "In our view, the news release does contain inaccurate information or information that's not true, and we disagree with a number of the suggestions in the news release and particularly, a number of the assertions that have been made about Stride."

The Municipality says its initial investigation has determined that the funds were sent to Toronto before being sent out of country almost immediately after. It is also stating that its claim with insurance provider Western Financial has been denied despite work from the Association of Manitoba Municipalities that ensures all municipalities across the province have extensive coverage when it comes to cyber fraud.

Budz adds, “Stride takes the privacy and protection of our members’ personal and financial information very seriously. We take continuous action to monitor our digital banking system security to minimize these types of cyber-fraud events and to keep our members' privacy and money safe.”

The Municipality says it has since hired a national computer security expert to review both the logs of Westlake-Gladstone and Stride Credit Union to determine how the account was accessed. Stride Credit Union maintains it has been nothing but cooperative and supportive since the attack and will be directly responding to the Municipality to address a number of its claims.