Winkler cybersecurity incident prompts phone and payment system lockdown – PembinaValleyOnline.com

https://pembinavalleyonline.com/articles/-winkler-cybersecurity-incident-prompts-phone-and-payment-system-lockdown

Publish Date: 2026-07-08 16:12:00

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The City of Winkler is currently responding to a cybersecurity incident affecting portions of its information technology systems.

Mayor Henry Siemens said that, in response to the incident, the city has launched an investigation, notified law enforcement, and implemented cyber protections to contain the situation.

“We isolated the area that was affected to limit further impact,” he said.

“We immediately reached out to external cybersecurity experts as well to make sure that we engaged the people that we needed to be involved.”

Due to the incident, the city has locked down its phone and payment systems, and the following city offices will be closed until further notice:

• City Hall

• Public Works

• Meridian Exhibition Centre Office

Mayor Siemens said the closures will allow the city to continue looking into the matter while some of its systems are offline.

“We’ve closed them preemptively so that staff have an opportunity to dig in and find what they need to do so that they’re not at all distracted by answering questions that they can’t deal with right now because they don’t have access to our systems,” he said.

Taking the incident ‘very seriously’

Mayor Siemens said that while the city hasn’t yet uncovered the nature of the incident, it is taking the situation “very seriously.”

“We’re looking into what’s there. We don’t yet know exactly what was or wasn’t compromised. We’ll continue to dig into it to find out exactly what happened,” he said.

He added that while the city is focused on restoring its systems as quickly as possible, it will do so only in a manner that is safe and secure.

For now, however, the immediate concern is going through “every step” to find out what happened, which Mayor Siemens said is too early to know.

“One of the first questions that people always ask is, ‘Was this ransomware?’ We’re not sure yet,” he said.

He added that at this point, the city has not yet determined if employee, customer, utility, or tax information has been compromised.

‘We will share information as quickly as we possibly can’

The mayor reiterated that while the city searches for information, its systems will remain locked down.

He said the community will be informed once answers are available.

“We will share information as quickly as we possibly can,” he said.

“At this point in time, residents don’t need to do anything further until we know what it is, and we’ll communicate that as soon as we do know what we’re looking at.

“It’s important for us to make sure that we find the information that we need and then that we communicate that as quickly as we possibly can.”

He said that while the situation is ongoing, it’s important to note that the incident was caught “very early.”

Mayor Siemens added that, despite the incident, the city can still look after the community safely through its essential services, which remain unaffected.

“We’re able to provide safe drinking water. We’re able to respond with fire and police if needed, but at this time, we do have a cybersecurity incident that we’re digging into,” he said.

Updates to follow when available.

With files from Robyn Wiebe and Gavin Anderson