LOCAL NEWS: RBC MANAGER MAKES COMMITMENT ▼ A3
Times
Thursday, December 24, 2015 ▼ Volume 51 No. 52 ▼ www.clearwatertimes.com ▼ $1.35 Includes GST
THE
NORTH THOMPSON
BROADS ON BOARDS:
2014
CCNA BLUE RIBBON
Women learn how to ski. See A12 inside.
First Place Best All Round Newspaper & Best Editorial Page Second Place Best Front Page All of Canada <1,250 circulation 2014 First Place General Excellence B.C. and Yukon <2,000 circulation 2014
Virus attacks District of Clearwater Keith McNeill
Ta-da! Raft River Elementary students give the grand finale to their class' performance during a Christmas concert held at the school on Thursday, Dec. 17. A good-sized crowd attended the event. Look for more photos of the concert plus Christmas stories largely written by student from Raft River inside this issue. The winners of the Times' Christmas story contest were announced in last week's issue. Photo by Keith McNeill
Total loss Firefighters battle a trailer fire in Barriere on Sunday afternoon. The lone male occupant was not home at the time and there were no injuries, but the structure was totally destroyed. The blaze is not considered suspicious and the woodstove was the likely cause. Nine firefighters from Barriere were joined by eight from Chu Chua under a recently renewed mutual aid agreement. The occupant had no fire insurance. Photo submitted
Highway 5 Little Fort, BC 250-677-4441
District of Clearwater is moving forward the replacement of its computers and hiring a new information technology services company after the municipality’s computer network became infected with a virus. According to a report from director of finance Wes Renaud to town council’s finance and audit committee, the District’s network was infected by the Cryptolocker virus in February, 2015. Cryptolocker is a ransom-ware trojan that targets computers running Microsoft Windows. Once the computer becomes infected, the virus displays a message offering to have itself removed if a ransom is paid. As a result of the District’s computers becoming infected, BDO, the District’s auditors, stated in a letter, “The virus exposed certain vulnerabilities in the IT (information technology) system and consulting, including that backups were not being adequately maintained and tested. Furthermore, the District’s IT consultant recommended that the District engage with the
Highway 5 Clearwater, BC 250-674-3148
Located on Highway 5
perpetrator of the virus, which introduces further risk to the District.” Most of District of Clearwater’s computers are sluggish, a varied in makes and models, and are well beyond their warranty period, Renaud noted in his report. Computers in satellite locations, such as the firehall, Sportsplex and former District office, are not on the same network. Sea to Sky Network Solutions, IT consultants hired following the virus attack, recommended that a redundant server be set up that would back up all dat on the main server every hour and store the data at an offsite location in Vancouver. Other recommendations included a new Dell main server with a fiveyear warranty, new Dell workstations also with five-year warranties, and new network equipment (including firewalls and wireless equipment for the office). During its meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 15, town council approved spending $58,000 to speed up the replacement cycle of the District’s computers. Council also approved awarding a $65,000 IT service contract to Sea to Sky of Vancouver.