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Wednesday May 23, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday May 23, 2018

York police probe Highway 407 data breach that led PC candidate to quit

York Regional Police’s fraud unit is investigating the “internal theft” of customer data from 407 ETR, the company that oversees Highway 407, CBC News has learned.

September 21, 2017

On Wednesday, the former Progressive Conservative candidate in Brampton East, Simmer Sandhu, resigned over allegations of his involvement in the data breach. Sandhu called the allegations “totally baseless” and said he would work to clear his name.

His resignation came hours after 407 ETR announced it was informing some 60,000 customers that their names, mailing addresses and in some cases their phone numbers were stolen from the company’s office in the past year.

Sandhu worked at the company for nine years, until he left about two months ago.

December 18, 2015

A spokesperson for York police said the investigation is in its earliest stages and few details were immediately available on Friday. The

spokesperson did not say whether or not the investigation will include allegations of links between the data breach and Sandhu.

Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath both called for police to probe the circumstances of the stolen data while campaigning this week.

On the campaign trail Friday, Ford told reporters that police had not contacted him nor his campaign team to discuss the stolen data.

He then reiterated the Tories parted ways with Sandu “as soon we found out about it.”

Ford added that, to his knowledge, no other candidates or ridings have been linked in any way to the data breach. (Source: CBC) 

 

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Saturday, March 29, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, March 29, 2014

Wynne distances herself from McGuinty in wake of new allegations

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne struggled to distance herself Thursday from her predecessor Dalton McGuinty, amid explosive police allegations that his chief of staff may have committed a breach of trust in the ongoing gas plants scandal.

Provincial police allege in unsealed court documents that they believe David Livingston gave an outside tech expert — the boyfriend of a senior staffer — access to 24 computers in the premier’s office.

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According to the documents, Livingston sought high-level access to the computers to “wipe clean the hard drives” after McGuinty resigned amid controversy over the costly cancellation of two gas plants.

It’s alleged that during the transition period to Wynne’s administration, Livingston arranged for his executive assistant
Wendy Wai to have special access to desktops in the premier’s office, even though she had little knowledge of computers.

Police believe Peter Faist, who wasn’t a government employee, was the person who actually accessed the 24 computers using Wai’s administrative privileges, including Miller’s, Livingston’s and other staffers.

Faist, who police believe is the partner of former deputy chief of staff Laura Miller, was never officially hired by the government and did not undergo the required security screening, the documents say.

According to two staffers in the premier’s office, Faist accessed their computers a few days before Wynne was sworn in, saying he was getting them ready for the next government, police say.

The staffers said they couldn’t log into their computers after Faist left and called IT staff, who said it was clear that system files had been deleted, police allege. (Source: Toronto Star)