Cyber Incident Updates
At Edge Imaging, safeguarding the privacy and security of personal information is our top priority. This page provides timely updates for affected customers. For any specific inquiries, please reach out to our Privacy Officer at privacyofficer@edgeimaging.ca.
Information and Updates on Entourage, Creator Studio Pro, Cyber Incident
One of our service providers, Entourage (the owner of the “Creator Studio Pro” yearbook software web platform, has had a cyber incident on its Canadian AWS cloud server. On February 5, 2024, Entourage recognized a cyber incident on its Canadian AWS cloud server due to a compromised Entourage developer username and password of one of its server accounts. The result was a ransom attack where the threat actor removed photo images on a storage container on that server.
Incident Update:
March 28th – The BC Privacy Commissioner has concluded that Edge’s response to the third-party breach was compliant with section 34 of PIPA. Edge made a reasonable effort to mitigate potential harm to the affected individuals that may result from this breach and has taken appropriate steps to prevent future similar incidents. To access the investigation summary, please click here.
March 27th – Creator Studio Pro, our third-party yearbook software provider, has released key insights from their comprehensive forensic reports along with upgraded security protocols. To access the complete report, please click here.
February 29th – The Creator Studio Pro team, working through their cyber security advisors, have reported that they secured the return of all the Canadian photo files from the threat actors, along with their commitment that the photo files have been deleted, and were not distributed. To access the notification, please click here.
February 15th – Edge Imaging notified the Federal and all Provincial Privacy Commissioners.
February 8th – Incident reported to the FBI (who has jurisdiction in this case as Entourage is based out of New Jersey).
February 8th – Edge Imaging promptly notified all affected School Board Privacy Officers, Primary Account Contacts, and Yearbook Advisors (with available contact information), providing a detailed account of the incident to the best of our knowledge. We asked them to disseminate this information within their respective school communities.
Frequently Asked Questions
As the investigation is ongoing, information may change and will be updated as required.
What happened?
On February 5, 2024, Entourage recognized a cyber incident on its Canadian AWS cloud server due to a compromised username and password of one of its server accounts. The result was a ransomware attack where the threat actor removed photo images on a storage container on that server.
What was the extent of the cyber incident?
It is our understanding that yearbook photos from your school were in the affected storage container. We are advised by Entourage that the photos were “raw” and contained no other identifying information such as names, schools, grades, or captions. The photos span the last 24 months when we first engaged Entourage to support our yearbook services.
We are proactively notifying all affected schools to help you communicate with your school community about this incident, and to advise you on the yearbook rebuilding process. We assure you that Edge Imaging’s own IT systems were not accessed or affected at all. This incident arises fully from an attack on a vulnerability at Entourage.
We are in frequent discussions with Entourage to ensure that best practices for containment and future prevention are being followed. We are advised that the cyber incident is limited to the storage container with photos, and that their broader database of page templates, text, names and information has not been accessed.
We were made aware that there may have been some metadata (such as geo-location) associated with photo files uploaded by schools, depending on the device from which the photos were uploaded. Any captions manually added to a photo were not stored with the photo. This issue would not apply to photos taken by Edge Imaging, where the metadata is limited to date and camera settings; our cameras are not configured to capture geo-location.
This incident will require us to work together with you to re-upload all the photographs added to date, and our Yearbook team will be in touch with your Yearbook advisor to discuss the process.
What is the 3rd party provider doing to prevent an incident like this in the future?
Entourage has advised that they have put in place several mitigation measures to prevent a similar event in the future, including:
- taking the affected AWS cloud server offline to contain the breach;
- rotating all Entourage credentials as well as updating the credentials that were known to have been compromised;
- removing all credentials from all developers for the affected environment such that they no longer will have access to the Canada servers unless they are working on fixes for the affected installation;
- engaging a security audit firm to audit and monitor their platform to prevent this from happening again.
Entourage is also continuing to make updates to the code and network security settings to further strengthen its security, among other measures.
What do schools need to do?
As we do not have the ability to identify those who may have been affected by the cyber incident, we have asked for our schools’ assistance and cooperation in notifying each school community.
Last Updated: April 2nd, 2024.
Kindly be advised that this page has been established in response to a breach by a third-party vendor, Entourage, the proprietor of yearbook software Creator Studio Pro. Upon reaching a six-month milestone with no further updates, this page will be deactivated.
For more information on Edge’s Privacy Policy please click here