Montréal, February 18, 2021 – The Foundation of Greater Montréal (FGM) takes the protection of the information in its care very seriously. In consequence, we wish to inform our clients, suppliers and partners about a security incident.

Recently, FGM became aware of an incident whereby malicious third parties sent malicious emails to our customers and suppliers mentioning FGM or one of its employees as the email sender (“Incident”). Upon detection of the Incident, FGM immediately implemented countermeasures to identify any attempted intrusion and to protect the integrity of the data we possess. Although we are at the very preliminary stages of our investigation, we suspect that the malicious third party has had access to our IT environment and may have had access at an undetermined level to our customer and supplier data.

In response to this Incident, we are retaining the services of an industry-leading cyber forensic firm to conduct a comprehensive investigation and to assist FGM with remediation efforts. Should we determine that any additional sensitive information was exposed, we will notify affected customers and suppliers without delay.

We ask our clients, suppliers and partners to remain vigilant about any emails, text messages or phone calls asking to provide sensitive information, or click on links or attachments, even if they appear to come from FGM, its affiliates, or a known individual. It is not unusual for hackers to use information obtained during a breach to design targeted phishing campaigns.

Additionally, it is imperative to exercise caution should you receive any requests from FGM asking you to revise or update banking information or payment processes. When in doubt, please do not hesitate to contact us directly to confirm before responding to or acting upon suspicious requests.

We highly value our partnerships, and sincerely regret any concerns this incident may have caused. Safeguarding information is one of our most important priorities. Once our investigation will be completed, we will consider implementing any additional security measures which may help us prevent similar incidents and will continue to invest in leading edge technologies to protect our systems and data from the ever-growing cyber security threats.

If you have any questions or concerns about this incident, please send an email to Lise Charbonneau, Vice-President of Administration, Finance and Investments at lise.charbonneau@fgmtl.org.

Sincerely,

Karel Mayrand
President and CEO
Foundation of Greater Montréal