Kingston Police Services Board receives update on 'cyber incident,' reelects chair and vice-chair

ld over the lunch hour on Thursday, Jan.16, 2025, at Kingston Police Headquarters, the first Kingston Police Services Board meeting of the new year was short and sweet.

A brief election and an update on the recent cybersecurity incident were the only things included on the public agenda. After Chair Jarrod Stearns and Vice-Chair Mayor Bryan Paterson were unanimously reelected, Chief of Police Scott Fraser provided the cybersecurity update.

“On January 3rd, 2025, we identified a network issue at the Kingston Police. We immediately commenced an investigation into that issue, and it revealed that a cybersecurity incident did occur,” the chief stated.

“Currently the investigation is ongoing, and we are committed to transparency and sharing information as soon as it is safe to do so, and as soon as it is secure for us to do so."

According to Fraser, “Cyber incidents generally happen at random, and there are individuals who are probing for access across a wide range of organizations, as we unfortunately see in the news quite frequently. Kingston Police does have cybersecurity measures in place, which are updated regularly. While we can and do take action to secure online data, there are currently really no known security measures available to make a network 100 per cent completely invulnerable to such situations.”

The chief said those with Kingston Police “continue to notify the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) of the cyber incident," and that Kingston Police are following the guidelines provided by the IPC “in assessing the nature of the incident and notifying affected members of the public as needed.” He said the force would “take the time required to get back to our standard operations,” acknowledging that it could take several months of “gradual and intentional restoring of services to their full capacity on a priority basis, which is constantly being determined by leadership.”

While the timeline for recovery is evolving, Fraser said, “the Kingston Police is committed to resolving the situation as efficiently and effectively as possible, and we have the right resources --- which is very important --- in place to do such a thing.” 

He emphasized that Kingston Police continue to respond to emergency calls for service. 

“We're unable to make further comment on the ongoing investigation. However, the important focus is that the Kingston Police immediately shut down access, operationalized the team --- which includes third-party cybersecurity professionals --- to support our investigation and ongoing response, and are making progress in restoring our systems and protecting against future incidents,” Fraser said. 

“So, in a nutshell, that's where we are now," the chief concluded. "As more information becomes available, we'll release as much information as possible. I would say it's a very complex situation, but we are managing.” 

The members of the Kingston Police Service Board asked no questions and, with that, the meeting was moved in camera.

Background on the 'cyber incident'

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Cybercrime Investigations Team (CIT), together with members of Kingston Police and outside consulting experts, announced on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, that they were investigating a cyber incident affecting the Kingston Police.

At that time, Kingston Police stated that the Friday, Jan. 3, 2025, incident the Fraser referred to had “affected some of our IT systems, particularly our non-emergency functions, which may be experiencing delays.”

While neither Kingston Police nor the OPP disclosed the exact nature of the cyber incident, police did confirm in a statement that the ability for Kingston Police to respond to emergency situations has not been impacted.

“The OPP CIT, Kingston Police and third-party experts are continuing to investigate the incident and its impacts,” the OPP said in the statement. “This is an active and ongoing investigation. Updates will be provided as they become available.”

“Our top priority is to serve and protect the public. We are following a response plan to manage the incident as quickly and effectively as possible. We are also diligently working to ensure that our day-to-day operational activities have alternate processes where necessary and continue to function,” Kingston Police stated on January 6.

“We are working closely with our government and enforcement partners to investigate the incident and to restore services. We have also notified the Kingston Police Service Board, the Mayor and the City of Kingston, who are working to support us in every way they can.”

Anyone with information in relation to this cybersecurity investigation is encouraged to call the OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or to contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or ontariocrimestoppers.ca.

The Kingston Police Services Board meets regularly on the third Thursday of each month, beginning at 12 noon in the William Hackett Boardroom at Kingston Police Headquarters, 705 Division Street.