BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
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As many as 1,700 people may have been affected by a recent cybersecurity incident that remains under investigation, according to the GNWT.
Affected individuals may include education staff, other territorial government employees, contractors and program participants who use the Canvas learning management platform, a May 21 news release stated.
The GNWT warns that compromised information may include names, email addresses and enrollment or professional development training information. They noted that no passwords were accessed or compromised.
Affected government departments include Education, Culture and Employment, Infrastructure, and Industry, Tourism and Investment.
The GNWT revealed a “security incident” involving the learning management platform Canvas and its parent company Instructure.
On May 5, the government became aware that Instructure had experienced a cybersecurity incident. The incident resulted in unauthorized access to “some information” associated with Canvas accounts.
The Office of the Chief Information Officer and departmental incident handlers began working to assess the scope of the breach and to map out response strategies.
The Information and Privacy Commissioner of the Northwest Territories was also notified of the data breach.
According to the May 21 news release, the Canvas platform does not store financial or sensitive information, and thus such information was not compromised either.
For updates, the GNWT encourages individuals to visit the Security Incident Update and FAQs page on its Instructure website.
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