City of Winkler hit by cyberattack – Winnipeg Free Press
City of Winkler hit by cyberattack – Winnipeg Free Press
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2026/07/09/city-of-winkler-hit-by-cyberattack
Publish Date: 2026-07-09 17:13:00
Source Domain: www.winnipegfreepress.com
Winkler has become the latest Manitoba municipality to grapple with cybersecurity incidents.
On Tuesday morning, the city’s cybersecurity protection systems detected an incident, prompting officials to isolate affected systems and take certain municipal systems and services offline as a precaution while the situation is assessed.
Phone and payment systems are unavailable as the city, about 115 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg, works to resolve the issue.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
Pictured, Winkler City Hall. The Manitoba municipality, about 115 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg, is the latest to grapple with cybersecurity incidents leaving phone and payment systems unavailable as the city works to resolve the issue.
“We’re fortunate that we have a very good IT team, and security has always been a significant investment for us,” Winkler Mayor Henry Siemens said. “So we were maybe better prepared than others potentially would have been because of the strength of our staff and the strength of our security protocols.”
Several Manitoba municipalities have had to contend with cyber incidents in recent years.
In April, the RM of Gimli announced that its information technology systems had been affected by a cybersecurity incident. Around the same time, the ransomware group Payload claimed responsibility for an attack on the municipality and threatened to release sensitive municipal data unless its demands were met. The RM has not confirmed whether Payload was responsible for the incident.
About a month later, Gimli said its systems had been restored.
The RM of Ritchot experienced a cybersecurity incident in December 2024 that disrupted municipal servers and systems.
In one of Manitoba’s most significant municipal cyber incidents, about $470,000 was stolen from an account belonging to the Municipality of WestLake-Gladstone…
