Ontario Construction News staff writer
Bird Construction, a multi-million dollar construction firm that has completed major federal and provincial projects including facilities for National Defence and police stations was the victim of a ransomware attack recently.
According to CBC News, Bird Construction of Mississauga, acknowledged this week that it was recently victimized.
“Bird Construction responded to a cyber incident that resulted in the encryption of company files,” the CBC quoted an unnamed company spokesperson as saying. “Bird continued to function with no business impact, and we worked with leading cybersecurity experts to restore access to the affected files.”
The hacker group known as Maze has claimed responsibility for the malware infecting the systems of Bird Construction. The attack managed to encrypt some 60Gb of data, preventing the company from accessing its own files.
Bird Construction has not revealed if they paid the attackers to lift the ransomware encryption.
CBC News reported that from 2006 to 2015, Bird won 48 contracts with the Department of National Defence, totalling over $406 million. The construction company has also helped build a detachment headquarters in Surrey for the RCMP and has collaborated with Public Services and Procurement Canada on several projects.
A company spokesperson told CBC News that government officials were notified at the time of the breach.