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One of St. Stephen’s largest employers says it is investigating after being hit by a cybersecurity incident in February.
Ganong Bros. experienced “an IT security incident” on Feb. 22 that impacted some systems, director of public relations Claire Ryan told Brunswick News.
The candy and chocolate company is based out of St. Stephen and manufactures brands like Pal-O-Mine, Delecto and Chicken Bones.
“Upon discovering the incident, we immediately undertook countermeasures to protect our network and data,” Ryan said Saturday. “Ganong’s investigation is ongoing to determine the extent to which any data, including personal information, may have been compromised.”
The cybersecurity incident was initially reported by CHCO on Thursday last week. Ryan said operations that were affected have returned to normal.
She said the company has retained third-party cybersecurity experts and legal counsel to “assist with containment, remediation and to conduct a forensic investigation to determine the extent of the incident.”
When asked if the incident was a ransomware attack, similar to that which the City of Saint John experienced in 2020, Ryan declined further comment. A ransomware attack includes a demand that the victim pay the attacker in order to protect the data targeted in the attack.
She said that if personal information was found to be compromised in the incident, anyone affected will be notified directly.
N.B. RCMP Cpl. Hans Ouellette said the police were not aware of the incident and were not asked to investigate.
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