Employee information stolen in Toronto Zoo cyberattack

The Toronto Zoo says it believes salary information and social insurance numbers of its employees may have been stolen during a cyberattack earlier this month.

The data breach was first detected on Jan. 5.

In a statement released Wednesday, officials said that while it’s still early in the investigation, they believe that “current, former and retired Toronto Zoo employees dating back to 1989 have had some personal information stolen.”

This could include past earnings information, social insurance numbers, birthdates, telephone numbers and home addresses.

“Based on the current information we have, we do not believe it includes personal banking information as the Zoo does not store that information on our servers,” officials said in a statement.

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Individuals impacted by the cyberattack will be notified directly.

The zoo is offering all staff dating back to 1989 free access to a credit monitoring service for two years, something they hope will help individuals check for signs of identity fraud.

“It is so unfortunate and very disturbing that charitable not-for-profit organizations like your Toronto Zoo and other public sector organizations are being targeted by cyber attacks,” officials said.

“Our mission is to connect people, animals and conservation science to fight extinction, not cybercriminals. This has been a terrible incident that has directly impacted our current and former staff and for that we are deeply sorry.”

The Toronto Public Library is also still reeling from a cyberattack that crippled its systems. It’s been nearly three months since the library’s website, public computers and printers have been up and running as a result.

Officials have said they hope the library’s systems will be phased back in starting in late January.