{
	"id": "75d0aed3-8781-4cd5-8dd6-f06520c99ee5",
	"created_at": "2026-04-06T00:14:50.814236Z",
	"updated_at": "2026-04-10T03:20:18.715998Z",
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	"sha1_hash": "fe1fa8d29ddcf52b618ff10989084c9b8dd679a9",
	"title": "LockBit 3.0 Says It's Holding a Canadian City for Ransom",
	"llm_title": "",
	"authors": "",
	"file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
	"file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
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	"plain_text": "LockBit 3.0 Says It's Holding a Canadian City for Ransom\r\nBy Mihir Bagwe\r\nArchived: 2026-04-05 16:07:10 UTC\r\nCybercrime , Cybercrime as-a-service , Fraud Management \u0026 Cybercrime\r\nRansomware Attack Locks Up Westmount Services and Takes Down Email System (MihirBagwe) • November\r\n22, 2022    \r\nWestmount City Hall (Source: City of Westmount)\r\nThe nefarious LockBit 3.0 cybercriminal group is claiming responsibility for the ransomware attack that halted\r\nmunicipal services and shut down employee email accounts in Westmount, Quebec, giving the city a deadline of\r\nDec. 4 to make an undisclosed ransom payment.\r\nSee Also: Experts Offer Insights from Theoretical to the Realities of AI-enabled Cybercrime\r\nWestmount, a city with nearly 21,000 residents in southwestern Quebec, on Monday initially reported that the\r\ncity's email services were unavailable because of an unidentified computer outage. Later, the city confirmed the\r\noutage also affected other municipal services and stemmed from a targeted cyberattack.\r\n\"Cyberattacks are unfortunately becoming more and more prevalent and sophisticated in our society, and despite\r\nall the measures we put in place, public administrations are not completely immune to this sad reality,\" Westmount\r\nMayor Christina Smith says in a statement. \"I want to reassure all Westmounters that our teams are working\r\nseriously and diligently to remedy this situation, and we will keep residents informed.\"\r\nhttps://www.bankinfosecurity.com/lockbit-30-says-its-holding-canadian-city-for-ransom-a-20529\r\nPage 1 of 3\n\nThe city did not comment on the extent of the attack but says it hired a cybersecurity firm to investigate and to\r\nrestore its systems as soon as possible.\r\nLa Presse, a local digital news agency in Quebec, quoted Claude Vallières, the city’s head of IT, who said, \"We\r\nknow we have encrypted servers, but we don't know who attacked us. We are still investigating the infected\r\nservers, but we have not had any communication with anyone.\"\r\nLockBit Claims Responsibility\r\nThe LockBit 3.0 ransomware group claimed responsibility for the attack and says it has successfully downloaded\r\n14 terabytes of sensitive data. LockBit, which operates as a ransomware-as-a-service group, says it will release the\r\nstolen data if a ransom payment is not made in the next two weeks.\r\nThis message to Westmount is posted on the LockBit dark web blogging site. (Source: ISMG)\r\nBest known for its 2021 ransomware attack against Accenture, the LockBit ransomware gang launched its\r\nLockBit 3.0 malware in June 2022, after conducting two months of beta testing and offering a bug bounty for\r\nethical hackers to inspect the decryption code.\r\nLockBit operators posted screenshots showing files of different departments and other data as a proof for their\r\nclaim, but Information Security Media Group was unable to immediately contact the municipality and confirm the\r\nauthenticity of the documents.\r\nThe attack comes on the heels of a new National Cyber Threat Assessment 2023-2024 by the Canadian Center for\r\nCyber Security. The report, which says ransomware is \"the most disruptive form of cybercrime facing Canadians,\"\r\nadds that ransomware benefits significantly from the specialized cybercrime economy and the growing availability\r\nof stolen information.\r\nhttps://www.bankinfosecurity.com/lockbit-30-says-its-holding-canadian-city-for-ransom-a-20529\r\nPage 2 of 3\n\n\"So long as ransomware remains profitable, we will almost certainly continue to see cybercriminals deploying it,\"\r\nthe report says.\r\nThe city of Westmount's official website was not affected by the attack, and the municipality says any updates on\r\nthe recovery will be communicated on the site. The mayor assured residents that data security is its \"top priority\"\r\nand so \"is the protection of our residents' and employees' information.\"\r\nSource: https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/lockbit-30-says-its-holding-canadian-city-for-ransom-a-20529\r\nhttps://www.bankinfosecurity.com/lockbit-30-says-its-holding-canadian-city-for-ransom-a-20529\r\nPage 3 of 3",
	"extraction_quality": 1,
	"language": "EN",
	"sources": [
		"ETDA"
	],
	"references": [
		"https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/lockbit-30-says-its-holding-canadian-city-for-ransom-a-20529"
	],
	"report_names": [
		"lockbit-30-says-its-holding-canadian-city-for-ransom-a-20529"
	],
	"threat_actors": [],
	"ts_created_at": 1775434490,
	"ts_updated_at": 1775791218,
	"ts_creation_date": 0,
	"ts_modification_date": 0,
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