Notice of Blackbaud Cybersecurity Incident

NOTICE OF BLACKBAUD CYBERSECURITY INCIDENT August 7, 2020 On July 16, 2020 the Edmonton Humane Society (EHS) was advised of a data security incident that may have involved the personal information of our supporters. EHS takes the protection and proper use of your donor information very seriously and in the interest of transparency, we are committed to providing details of the incident. What Happened We were notified by Blackbaud, the third-party service provider who hosts the database used in managing EHS’ fundraising activities, of a security incident. At this time, we understand Blackbaud discovered and stopped a ransomware attack. After discovering the attack, Blackbaud’s Cyber Security team—together with independent forensics experts and law enforcement— successfully prevented the cybercriminal from blocking their system access and fully encrypting files and ultimately expelled them from their system. Prior to locking the cybercriminal out, the cybercriminal removed a copy of the EHS backup file containing personal information of our supporters. This occurred at some point beginning on February 7, 2020 and access could have incurred intermittently until May 20, 2020. Because protecting customers’ data is their top priority, our third-party service provider, Blackbaud, paid the cybercriminal’s demand with confirmation that the copy they removed containing EHS’ data had been destroyed. Based on the nature of the incident, Blackbaud’s research, and third party (including law enforcement) investigation, Blackbaud has [...]