For Immediate Release: Wednesday November 23, 2022

TORONTO, ON — Following the conclusion of a detailed forensic investigation, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO) has begun notifying current and retired members of the organization that personal information was compromised as part of a cyber security incident involving a ransomware that affected our systems.

On May 30, 2022, OSSTF/FEESO discovered that an unauthorized third party accessed and encrypted our systems between May 25 and May 30, 2022. OSSTF/FEESO immediately hired a cyber security firm to contain and investigate the incident to determine its scope and the nature of the information involved. At the time, OSSTF/FEESO notified its members about the incident and the ongoing investigation.

Following this review, we conducted an eDiscovery process to review the personal information that may have been impacted. This process took several months to complete, and OSSTF/FEESO is reaching out to current and retired members with details about the personal information involved in the incident.

While we have no evidence at this time of misuse of the data, depending on the type of personal information impacted, OSSTF/FEESO will provide to affected individuals credit monitoring and identity theft protection services with Equifax at our expense for a period of one year.

We regret any concern or inconvenience this incident may cause to our valued members. OSSTF/FEESO takes the protection of the personal information of our members seriously and we are committed to taking all necessary steps to prevent a similar incident from reoccurring.

OSSTF/FEESO, founded in 1919, has over 60,000 members across Ontario. They include public high school teachers, occasional teachers, educational assistants, continuing education teachers and instructors, early childhood educators, psychologists, secretaries, speech-language pathologists, social workers, plant support personnel, university support staff, and many others in education.