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Fraudulent activity was flagged in December 2021 but WorkSafeBC and the government didn’t inform the public.
Surrey RCMP are investigating a security breach at WorkSafeBC after the discovery of alleged fraudulent activity related to the government’s COVID-19 paid sick leave program for businesses. SunMedia Article content
Surrey RCMP is investigating a security breach at WorkSafeBC after the discovery of alleged fraudulent activity related to the governments COVID-19 paid sick leave program for businesses.
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The fraudulent activity was flagged late last year, but WorkSafeBC and the government didnt inform the public.
The detachments financial crime unit is investigating alleged fraud involving the COVID paid sick leave employer reimbursement program, Surrey RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Vanessa Munn told Postmedia News on Wednesday. Police were made aware of the allegations in December 2021.
Munn said no charges have been laid and the investigation is still in the evidence gathering phase, so no additional details could be provided.
We are limited in the information we can provide as no charges have been laid, Munn said.
In May 2021, the BC government brought in a COVID paid sick leave program that required employers to provide workers three days of paid sick leave related to the coronavirus. Employers paid their workers in full and were funded by the province. WorkSafeBC was charged with administering the employer reimbursement part of the program that ended on Dec. 31.
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WorkSafeBC wouldnt comment on the fraudulent activity, but the Ministry of Labor said in a statement its aware of an incident related to the COVID employer reimbursement program.
Ministry staff are vigilant in ensuring we are using up-to-date technology and protocols to protect against these types of incidents that are becoming increasingly sophisticated, the statement said.
The ministry didnt give details about what type of tactics were used to breach the reimbursement system that contains sensitive financial information including banking details and social insurance numbers.
Neither the ministry nor WorkSafeBC would say whether the alleged fraudsters were able to obtain sensitive financial information of individuals or businesses. The ministry wouldnt say why the public wasnt notified of the fraud.
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The ministry confirmed the RCMP is investigating and refused to provide additional details. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner would not confirm whether its probing the incident.
Michelle Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the privacy commission, said generally, when a privacy breach occurs, groups are advised to follow four steps:
Contain the breach by stopping the unauthorized practice, recovering the records, changing access codes or correcting weaknesses in security.
Evaluate the risks and identify what type and sensitivity of personal information has been compromised, find out the cause and extent of the breach, and determine how many individuals are affected and whether those affected could be at-risk of harms such as identity theft.
Notify affected individuals to avoid or mitigate harm.
Finally, take action to prevent a breach in future that could include a thorough review of what happened and why.
BC Liberal critic for finance Peter Milobar said in a statement: If true, this is deeply concerning, especially coming from the most secretive government in Canada.
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