(Longueuil) The Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA) has been targeted since Sunday by a ransomware attack that affects all of its computer systems.
Posted at 12:24 p.m.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, the director general of the UPA, Charles-Félix Ross, indicates that this is a “major cyberattack”, the main one of which the organization has been the victim.
“It’s the usual modus operandi. They (the hackers) managed to get in, to insert themselves into our computer system and they paralyzed the network. They are asking us for a ransom to obtain the decryption key,” he explains over the phone.
The approximately 160 UPA employees can no longer connect to the network, either in the Longueuil offices or remotely. In addition, 23 client organizations of the PAU network are also affected. These include, for example, specialty federations, such as the Producteurs de grains du Québec.
Nevertheless, several entities have their own IT system and are not affected by the incident. This is the case with the Producteurs de lait du Québec and the Éleveurs de Porcs du Québec or the website of the independent newspaper Home Earth says Mr. Ross.
“They will be able to publish the newspaper next week, but we had a special notebook for an agricultural exhibition, and the files are blocked, he specifies. We are in plan B mode.
The director general assures that there is no impact for agricultural producers in the immediate future.
External cybersecurity experts have been hired by the UPA to work with their IT team to secure the networks and investigate. They are trying to determine the extent of the incident.
Even if the UPA had not suffered a cyberattack of this magnitude before, Mr. Ross does not hesitate to qualify the hackers as a “plague”, while several Quebec organizations are being targeted.
“We are always protecting ourselves (from cyberattacks), but it is an epidemic,” he says. It takes international intervention. Governments will have to talk to each other and put in place a web police. »
“We have protection in our cities, in our neighborhoods. On the internet, we should have the same protection, ”he adds.
Mr. Ross laments that it is becoming difficult to do business in this environment, and that employees are suffering from these cyberattacks. He pleads for better regulation of the web.
Earlier Tuesday, Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP), in Valcourt, also reported cybersecurity issues.
The UPA, a professional union organization, represents some 42,000 agricultural producers as well as forestry producers in Quebec.