SUMA has received an increase in reports of municipalities who have been impacted by cyber attacks.
With the increase in reports, SUMA has created a list of tips and resources to help protect Saskatchewan's hometowns. We will update this page as new resources and links are made available, so keep checking back.
Resources
Video Education
SUMA Webinar Recording - Responding to an Attack: Cyber Insurance and Incident Response for Municipalities
SUMA Webinar Recording - Before You're Attacked: A walkthrough for municipalities on cybersecurity and qualifying for insurance
SUMA Webinar Recording - You've Been Attacked: Now What? A mock cybersecurity incident for muncipalities
SUMA Webinar Recording - Experiencing an Attack: Lessons Learned from Cyber Attacks on Saskatchewan Municipalities
SUMA Summer School Recording: Cybersecurity Best Practices
Beaureron Security Resources
Beaureron Security is a free cybersecurity resource available to Kinetic GPO members. For those that are not members, Beaureron has provided some resources and information to get you started. If you are interested in becoming a Kinetic member to access this platform, please contact Kerri-Ann Daniels.
Other Links
Aon Cyber - Critical Control for Insurance
Cyber Security Risk Services through Kinetic GPO partner CDW
Canadian Centre for Cyber Security
Canadian Centre for Cyber Security's Baseline Security Controls for Small and Medium Organizations
US Department of Homeland Security: Cyber Incident Response Template
Tips and Tricks
Use multi-factor authentication - Use multi-factor authentication to protect remote network access, administrative access, and access to email. For example, with multi-factor authentication for email, you would log in with your username and a password, and have a verification sent via text or through an application on your cell phone.
Take phishing awareness training - Phishing awareness training can help municipal staff and end users spot phishing emails. If an email seems suspicious and it appears to come from someone you know, contact the individual directly to confirm they sent the email. Do not reply to the suspicious email to verify its legitimacy. Never click on a link or open an attachment unless you are sure the email is legitimate. Available phishing awareness training programs include KnowBe4 (used by SUMA), and CIRA (utilized by municipalities in BC).
Check municipal bank accounts daily - With banking moving online, municipalities are encouraged to check their municipal bank accounts daily for fraudulent activities. Some banking institutions have shortened periods - in some cases as short as 48 hours - for reporting fraudulent activity such as cheque fraud.
Use strong passwords and rotate them often - Strong passwords, made up of multiple characters including symbols, capital letters, lowercase letters, and numbers, reduce the chances of ransomware and other hackers from cracking administration usernames and passwords. Strong passwords should be rotated on a regular basis.
Keep your cyber protection programs and firewalls up to date - Keeping your municipality's cyber protection programs and firewalls up to date helps to ensure ransomware is detected and potentially quarantined. Lateral movement detection tools are also strongly recommended. In network security, lateral movement is the process by which attackers spread from an entry point to the rest of the network. Lateral movement detection tools help shut down the attack before ransomware is deployed to other computers or internal servers.
Backup data and review your procedures often - Creating a backup of data means creating a copy in the event there is a primary data failure, such as a malicious attack (virus or malware attack). Regularly reviewing data backup and storage procedures as well as testing the quality of data is also important.
