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Police in Kingston, Ont., have released more information about a January 2025 'cyber incident' in which someone gained access to the service's systems and copied about 100,000 documents containing personal and court information.
Police in Kingston, Ont. , have released more information about a January 2025 "cyber incident" in which someone gained access to the service's systems and copied about 100,000 documents containing personal and court information.
Posted: Oct 02, 2026 3:30 PM EDT | Last Updated: 19 minutes agoThe audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results. Police in Kingston, Ont.
, have released more information about a January 2025 "cyber incident" in which someone gained access to the service's systems and copied about 100,000 documents containing personal and court information. Police in Kingston, Ont. , have released more information about a January 2025 "cyber incident" in which someone gained access to the service's systems and copied about 100,000 documents containing personal and court information.
, Kingston Police said a "threat actor" accessed its network using a compromised account on Jan. 1, 2025. By the time police noticed the breach two days later, the hacker had copied and encrypted about 160 gigabytes of data from police servers. According to police, "experts in cybersecurity" reached out the suspected hacker who agreed to delete the data and show proof they had done so. Police did not explain why the hacker agreed to co-operate.
"Based on the available evidence, believes the likelihood of misuse or disclosure of the extracted information is low," they said. "However, while there is no evidence that the information has been disclosed, copied, or misused, it cannot be definitively ruled out that copies of the information were retained by the threat actor or disclosed elsewhere.
"Kingston Police said 160 gigabytes of data — for comparison, the latest iPhone model starts with 256 gigabytes of storage — contained about 345,000 documents, but all but about 100,000 were "duplication and junk. "Twenty-three years of information on people who interacted with police from 2000 to 2023, affecting about 22,000 people including offenders, victims, complainants, missing people, witnesses and police employees. Their names, birthdays and other legal information were exposed.
Fifteen years of criminal court information from 2009 to 2024, affecting about 51,000 people whose names, birthdays and legal information were exposed. Thirteen years of bail hearing information from 2009 to 2022, affecting about 68,000 people whose names, birthdays and remand information were exposed. Twelve years of provincial ticketing information from 2012 to 2024, affecting 50,000 to 100,000 people whose names, birthdays and legal information were exposed.
Twenty-two years of other data from 1998 to 2020, affecting "a wide cross-section" of about 80,000 people who interacted with police. Police said from this group, about 2,000 driver's licence numbers, fewer than 1,000 social insurance numbers and fewer than 250 credit card, health card or passport numbers were exposed.
Those groups, plus anyone who provided personal information to police over those various date ranges, should consider standard precautions such as monitoring financial accounts for unusual activity, contacting government agencies if they believe a government ID was compromised, and being wary of unsolicited calls or messages asking for personal information. The police force and the city's oversight board have plans to improve cybersecurity oversight, including investing nearly $4 million over three years and hiring more full-time information technology staff.
CBC News asked for an interview about the breach but was instead sent a statement from Chief Adam MacIntosh saying they take people's concerns seriously and remain committed to strengthening their systems.
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