P.E.I. government website down for several hours after ransomware attack

CHARLOTTETOWN – The Prince Edward Island government website was back online Monday afternoon after a ransomware attack that blocked it for several hours.

“The perpetrator indicated they had encrypted web data. The website was restored on the same day (Monday) without paying ransomware,” the government’s Department of Finance said in an email.

The department added that there had been “no indication that there has been any user data compromised.”

Initial indications of a problem surfaced earlier in the morning when the government tweeted that there would be a “service interruption” and the site would be back up shortly.

Later Monday a page was up for several hours telling the public that the site was unavailable.

A report in the Charlottetown Guardian said visitors to some pages on the website were met with a screen that said “Oops, your website have been encrypted!”