Cybersecurity and Your Finances
Olympia Financial Group is a publicly traded corporation in Canada under OLY. The Olympia financial Group Inc. does most of the business operations through Olympia Trust Company. The Olympia Trust Company manages self-directed registered accounts, works with foreign currency exchanges, and various corporate shareholder services. Olympia Financial Group sells private health care plans through its wholly-owned subsidiary Olympia Benefits Inc. Clearly there is much activity in the office individually and in total with all of the entities. With all of this activity with the entities, there certainly is a mass amount of data which the companies would need to operate. This activity made the entities a fair target.
Attack
The businesses were a victim of a successful ransomware attack. This was announced on 2/2/2019. The attackers were able to gain access and encrypt the data on Olympia’s network. This only affected a part of the network, fortunately. Once the issue was detected, Olympia addressed the issue. This manifested itself with preventing any additional infection into the network. They contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Cybercrime Division and contracted with malware response and recovery industry specialists.
Post-Attack
Through the dedicated efforts of the staff, the business did recover. As of 2/3/2019, all of the businesses were up and running. Nearly all of the IT systems affected by the attack were operating. The investigation into the attack continues. There was no evidence their client’s personal information was compromised. They will continue to explore and implement ways to protect the business and its client’s personal data.
Thoughts
Ransomware continues to be a rather significant issue. This has the potential for devastating effects. Luckily for Olympia Financial, the spread of the infection was contained. This continues the need for employee training for ransomware and other attacks. With the level of devastation ransomware has the ability to do, businesses need this training. This training cannot just be the annual security training, where people get the deer in the headlights look or start playing on their phones. This needs to be through the year and interactive to be effective.
Resources
Bloomberg. (2019, February 20). OLY-Toronto stock quote. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/OLY:CN
Olympia Financial Group Inc. (2019, February 11). Olympia financial group inc. announces recovery from ransomware cyber attack. Retrieved from https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/02/11/1716817/0/en/Olympia-Financial-Group-Inc-announces-Recovery-from-Ransomware-Cyber-Attack.html
Reuters. (2019, February). Brief-Olympia financial group inc. announces recovery from ransomware cyber attack. Retrieved from https://ca.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/briefolympia-financial-group-inc-announces-recovery-from-ransomware-cyber-attack-1396461
About the Author - Charles Parker, II has been working in the info sec field for over a decade, performing pen tests, vulnerability assessments, consulting with small- to medium-sized businesses to mitigate and remediate their issues, and preparing IT and info sec policies and procedures. Mr. Parker’s background includes work in the banking, medical, automotive, and staffing industries.