Auditor General Flags Cybersecurity Breach That Cost Westlake-Gladstone Nearly Half a Million

By - david
29.08.25 12:13 PM

Manitoba’s Auditor General released a new report showing that the Municipality of Westlake-Gladstone suffered a cybercrime incident resulting in losses exceeding $472,000 during the 2019 holiday season.

Between December 19, 2019, and January 5, 2020, an unknown attacker accessed the municipality’s Stride Credit Union account and made 48 separate withdrawals, each just under $10,000, totalling $472,377.15. These transactions were conducted through the Credit Union’s online banking platform.

The suspicious activity was detected in January 2020. The municipality notified both Stride Credit Union and the RCMP, leading to the account being shut down. However, the Auditor General’s investigation found that although the RCMP investigated the case, the municipality itself failed to carry out a root cause analysis to understand how its online banking credentials had been compromised.

Auditor General Tyson Shtykalo noted in the August 2025 report that this was a missed opportunity to learn from the breach and implement safeguards to prevent future incidents.

The report highlighted the increasing cybercrime risks faced by municipalities and criticized the lack of baseline cybersecurity controls at the time of the breach. Essential controls like two-factor authentication, incident response plans, and staff cybersecurity training could have helped either detect or prevent the breach.

As a recommendation, the Auditor General urged all municipalities to adopt the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security’s baseline controls, which are tailored to be cost-effective for small to medium-sized organizations.

A broader concern flagged by the report was the lack of cybersecurity guidance provided to municipalities by Manitoba’s Municipal and Northern Relations Department, leaving local governments vulnerable to advanced digital threats.

This Westlake-Gladstone incident was among several findings in a wider review of municipal oversight across Manitoba, which also uncovered issues with procurement practices, improper expense claims, and weak financial accountability in multiple municipalities.

The report stressed that municipalities are custodians of public funds and must be equipped to face modern cyber risks. It emphasized that the Westlake-Gladstone case should serve as a cautionary example for other local governments in the province.

For more information, see the original article.

david