The City of Welland is warning that its email system has recently been compromised.

Its Information Services Department has been made aware of “suspicious emails received by the public from city email accounts,” it said in a news release on Friday.

On Dec. 7, staff detected unauthorized email access, which led to the subsequent discovery of a cyber breach, the city said. No other systems were affected.

Since Dec. 14, he said, there has been no malicious activity in the city’s systems, and information services have installed “other protections.”

A small percentage of emails were stored on the compromised server. Additionally, the third parties responsible for the breach may also have been able to send emails from the accounts they accessed, according to Friday’s statement.

“As soon as we discovered this flaw, we started working on a solution,” said administrative director Steve Zorbas.

“The confidentiality and integrity of sensitive information is a number one priority, and we are taking all necessary steps to mitigate risk and improve the security of our servers.”

He also said the city is taking steps to mitigate potential privacy breaches, in accordance with the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and reviewing its processes to ensure that these types of attacks do not occur.

The precise action that caused the breach is unclear, and external cybersecurity consultants have been retained to review the situation and assess the impacts of the breach.

“While unconfirmed, it appears the main purpose of the attack was to distribute malware,” the city said.

The municipality offers tips for avoiding phishing emails, such as checking links before opening them, avoiding sending sensitive information via email or text message, applying software updates and patches, as well as filter spam and block known IP addresses, domain names and file types. be bad.

Those who have received a suspicious email from a city employee account and are unsure whether the information they sent to the city has been compromised can email cyber@welland.ca for further investigation. thorough.