Recent visitors to the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) website were greeted with an ominous message, after an unidentified hacker gained access to the system.
“this is very fun … guys, if we do not talk now, you’ll have big troubles in future,” read the message.
“I have a lot of patches on your systems to gain access and you can’t restore your network from backups again. So talk in chat and i’ll stop this now. I’m waiting.”
The message included a link to download the Tor browser, which enables anonymous communication online, along with another link followed by more ominous words: “no way to run.”
The RMOW has temporarily taken all of its services, including email and phones, offline as a precautionary measure. In-person service at municipal hall has also been temporarily suspended.
"The RMOW is currently working with cybersecurity experts and RCMP to respond to this incident," reads an RMOW statement, released via the Whistler RCMP.
"In the meantime, the public should be vigilant about phone calls or emails that appear to be originating from the RMOW. The RMOW does not ask for private personal information by phone or email."
The RMOW said it will provide an update when services are back online.
More to come…
