The City of Ottawa has confirmed a data breach on its online service portal involving the email addresses and physical addresses of approximately 2,454 users.
My ServiceOttawa, a portal where residents can access and manage services including bill payments and service requests, was reportedly breached on Oct. 3 following what the city called “an isolated system error in the service request lookup tool.”
No financial, password or other sensitive personal information was accessed, and all affected individuals have been notified, Mishele Joanis, the director of ServiceOttawa, wrote in a statement.
The system error reportedly allowed a user with access to a specific service request number “to use a bot to access service requests linked to other accounts,” Joanis wrote.
Once the breach was detected, staff immediately blocked that user and prevented further unauthorized access.
The Chief Information Security Office and information technology staff conducted an analysis throughout October to confirm “the limited nature of exposure, improve processes and implement additional measures to minimize recurrence of similar incidents,” Joanis wrote.
“The City of Ottawa is committed to protecting personal information and maintaining secure services,” Joanis wrote. “This was an isolated incident within the service request lookup tool, and My ServiceOttawa remains secure.”
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