Dear Licensees,
Following a recent cyber attack last month which impacted many licensed dealers in BC and across North America, the VSA wishes to remind licensees of essential cyber security measures that can be taken.
The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security provides several helpful tips to safeguard you and your organizationโs networks and information from cyber threats. Start with the following 5 controls to strengthen your organization’s security.
1. Develop an Incident Response Plan: If you have a plan, you can quickly respond to incidents, restore critical systems and data, and keep service interruptions and data loss to a minimum. In a small organization, for example, this could include having a list of people to call when an incident occurs. Your plan should include strategies for backing up data.
2. Patch Operating Systems and Applications: Regularly update and patch software to fix bugs and address vulnerabilities. Enable automatic updates where possible to prevent exploitation by threat actors.
3. Enforce Strong User Authentication: Implement user authentication policies that balance security and usability. Ensure your devices authenticate users before they can gain access to your systems. Wherever possible, use two-factor authentication (2FA) or multi-factor authentication.
4. Backup and Encrypt Data: Copy your information and critical applications to 1 or more secure locations, such as the cloud or an external hard drive. If a cyber incident or natural disaster happens, these copies can help you continue business activities and prevent data loss. Backups can be done online or offline and can also be done in 3 different iterations: full, differential or incremental. Test your backups regularly to ensure you can restore your data.
5. Train Staff Regularly on your Organization’s Cyber Security Protocols: Ensure that staff undergo cyber security training, and are aware of the protocols your organization has in place in the event of a cyber threat or attack. When staff are aware of and adhere to these protocols, the organization is more resilient to attacks. Regular training and reminders can help keep this information top of mind.
Before implementing the controls, keep the following tips in mind:
Do you have or need cyber security insurance? Click Here
The VSA is thrilled to announce the launch of the online Dealer Portal, now accessible on the VSA website! Within the next week, the Authorized Spokesperson for each Dealership will be receiving an email with instructions on how to login to the Dealer Portal.
By logging in with your Dealer #, this innovative portal enables dealership representatives to:
If you have any questions, please contact our Licensing Team at licensing@vsabc.ca, 604-575-7256, or toll-free at 1-866-400-3529.
Please be advised that emails from Connector, the VSA’s Online Dispute Resolution platform, will now come from the address ‘connector.donotreply@vsabc.ca’. This is change from the previous address: ‘connector.donotreply@mvsabc.com’.
To ensure these emails continue to be delivered as expected, we recommend you add ‘connector.donotreply@vsabc.ca’ to your address book and safe senders list.
Thank you for your attention to this update.
