Former Brampton senior city manager charged in alleged city hall cybersecurity data breach

Bramptonguardian.com
June 16, 2021
Graeme Frisque

The city and Peel Regional Police have confirmed a former city of Brampton senior manager in the information technology department has been charged following an investigation into an alleged cybersecurity breach at city hall.

“On May 31, 2021, Peel Regional Police provided an update to the city that on May 23, 2021, Pars (Paris) Metropoulos was arrested and charged with one count of Interception of Communication contrary to Section 184(1) of the Criminal Code,” wrote the city in a news release. “The city continues to work closely with Peel Regional Police on this matter.”

“We can confirm that Paris Metropoulos is a former employee of the City of Brampton. The City will not cite additional individual personnel details,” added the city in an separate email.

Peel Regional Police said it could not provide any further details into the case as it is now in front of the courts.

“As this matter is before the courts, I cannot get into the specifics as some items may be presented as evidence,” said Const. Akhil Mooken. “This matter has been investigated and is now before the courts.”

A request for comment sent through Metropoulos' LinkedIn page by the Brampton Guardian was not answered by the time of this article's publication.

The city first revealed police were investigating the alleged data breach in December 2020, indicating the information and data stolen involved internal communications and didn’t affect any resident information. The alleged data breach occurred between December 2018 and October 2020.

“The city is aware of a cybersecurity breach by former employees of the corporation, while they were employed, into personal information of former and current employees,” said the city in December, while not revealing how many employees were affected or in which departments.

“The city took action to immediately advise and provide credit monitoring service to known affected individuals, notified the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, and has referred this matter to the Peel Regional Police Service,” it added.

According to his LinkedIn Page, Metropoulos worked as Senior Manager of digital innovation, information technology and core technology at city hall starting in 2017. The page indicated he also worked for the City of Vaughan for 23 years in that city’s information technology department.