Thousands affected by cyberattack on P.E.I.'s Confederation Centre of the Arts

An investigation of a cyberattack on Prince Edward Island's Confederation Centre of the Arts earlier this year has found that about 3,000 people were affected.

The centre experienced a ransomware incident on January 25. Based on an investigation, personal contact information, such as email addresses and birth dates, were potentially accessed by an unknown third party.

"When the incident happened, we immediately retained legal and expert advice to help us investigate and mitigate damages," said Jodi Zver, chief financial officer for the Confederation Centre.

 "We notified the privacy commissioner, we notified law enforcement, and we posted updates on our website as well."

She said they have been rebuilding their information technology servers to avoid incidents like this in the future.

"We've got more robust backup procedures now," Zver said. "We are also relooking at how we store digital information. So, we're not storing any personal, digital information online at all. If or when this happens again, there won't be any ramifications because there'll be no data for people to take."

All individuals affected have been contacted via email.

"The email would come from cybersafety@confederationcentre.com and it has detailed instructions on what steps they should take," Zver said.

The box office was not affected. Zver said any payment information stored in its system should be safe. The centre's payroll system was also not affected.

Out of an abundance of caution, Zver said the centre is offering credit monitoring and protection insurance to those whose information may have been accessed.