Friday, October 16, 2020 Neepawa Banner & Press

Page 1

Friday, October 16, 2020 • Vol.125 No. 12 • Neepawa, Manitoba

Don’t Miss Early Booking Specials on Canola!

We have multiple sources of genetics to give you more options: pInvigor pDekalb pCanterra pBrevant

CourtSeeds

BOOK EARLY FOR MAXIMUM DISCOUNTS AND PRODUCT AVAILABILITY

Plumas, MB courtseeds@gmail.com courtseeds.ca 204-386-2354

chris.kulbacki@plantpioneer.com 204-966-3245 or 204-476-6449

neepawa

Banner & Press Cyber fraud attacks Westlake-Gladstone Locally owned and operated

Inside this week

Are you looking to BUY or SELL farm property? Currently have qualified buyers Troy Mutch 204.212.1010

New RCMP officer in Neepawa Page 2

Just under half a million dollars stolen from municipality

Westlake-Gladstone Media Release The council and staff of the Municipality of Westlake-Gladstone would like to inform you that the Municipality of WestlakeGladstone was the target of a malicious cyber security breach, in which a significant amount of money was electronically stolen from the Municipality’s operating bank account. During the period of late December 2019 through the Christmas Holiday seasons, electronic withdrawals in the amount of approximately $9,950 were made from our account at Stride Credit Union. The Municipality of WestlakeGladstone does not utilize online banking for the transfer or withdrawal of funds at any time. The total loss over this period was approximately $447,000. The discovery of the missing funds was acted upon immediately by the CAO, who contacted Stride Credit Union, the RCMP and council to report the theft. The municipality has a secure server and

PHOTO BY EOIN DEVEREUX

Westlake-Gladstone municipal building.

network monitored by Kelty iManagement. Kelty monitors for viruses and malware, also making sure there is a business continuity strategy that is located in Canada. Our IT specialists, Kelty Management Systems, have been unable to detect any suspicious activity on the administrative office server and network and are confident that the

32nd Anniversary

204-476-3636

server and networks in our office are secure. The Municipality has been trying to work with Stride Credit Union to assist them in determining how the money was accessed, but so far, co-operation has been very limited. Stride Credit Union has been working with their legal team in Saskatoon to address our concerns

for fund security and our request for the replacement of funds. We have made a claim through our insurance company to cover this loss. However, to date, they have denied the claim even though the Association of Manitoba Municipalities have worked with the insurance provider (Western Financial) to ensure that all

municipalities in Manitoba have extensive coverage for cyber fraud. We have hired a national computer security expert to review both the computer logs of the Municipality and Stride Credit Union to determine how the bank account was accessed, and to follow the trail to determine where the money was sent. Initial investigations show

it was sent to Toronto and then out of Canada immediately. We have also engaged our own legal counsel to obtain the following information: 1. Why did Stride Credit Union not notify the Municipality of that many repetitive, out of the ordinary transactions that were occurring on the account, using a method that nobody at the Municipality has the authority to do? 2. Why is our insurance claim being denied, even though AMM claims we had extensive coverage for cyber fraud? 3. Work with Stride Credit Union to obtain its computer logs during that period of time for review by our security expert. Your local government has been carefully working with experts that will lead us to a recovery of taxpayer’s money. AMM has offered the municipality assistance with legal fees through the utilization of their legal fund. We are confident that their involvement will greatly assist in our cause. Continued on Page 16

BACK TO SCHOOL SPECIALS

Lenovo M90 Refurbished Computer Core i5 3.2GHZ, 250 GB HD, 4G Ram Windows 10 $349.99

New HP Laptop Core i3, 8GB ram, 1TB hard drive, Windows 10 $799.99


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.