Build Better: Strengthening Services & Systems

Building a Stronger, More Resilient Hamilton

In February 2024, the City of Hamilton experienced a cybersecurity incident that disrupted services and exposed gaps in systems, governance, organizational readiness and incident response capability.

Since that time, the City has taken responsibility and targeted action to address these gaps — strengthening systems, improving oversight, enhancing operational readiness and modernizing how services are delivered.

Today, City services are more secure, reliable and resilient, with improvements underway across technology, governance, workforce capacity and customer experience.

This work is being advanced through a portfolio of 21 projects focused on rebuilding systems, improving access to services and strengthening the City’s ability to respond to future risks.

The City has also implemented significant leadership, staffing and organizational changes to strengthen cybersecurity accountability, coordination and preparedness across the organization.

Building Back Better: Strengthening Services and Systems

The City is advancing a coordinated program to modernize systems, strengthen infrastructure, improve operational readiness and enhance service delivery.

This includes:

Strengthening incident response and capability
Enhancing the ability to detect, respond to and recover from cyber incidents through improved tools, processes, monitoring, recovery capabilities and expertise.

Improving governance and oversight
Establishing clearer structures, stronger oversight and dedicated cybersecurity leadership to support accountability, decision-making and enterprise-wide coordination.

Advancing risk management and controls
Strengthening controls, updating policies and aligning cyber risk management with insurance, compliance and operational requirements.

Enhancing leadership and organizational structure
Establishing dedicated cybersecurity leadership through the creation of a Chief Information Officer (CIO) role and recruitment of the City’s first Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), alongside strengthened governance and accountability structures.

Expanding workforce capacity and organizational readiness
Increasing organizational focus on cybersecurity preparedness through expanded staff training, awareness initiatives, operational coordination and long-term investment in cyber resilience.

Continuing modernization and service improvement
Investing in systems and technology to improve reliability, access and the customer experience for residents.

Progress Snapshot

Progress is advancing across the City as we continue to strengthen systems, improve operational readiness and modernize how we serve Hamiltonians. This work is being delivered through the City’s Build Better plan, which focuses on long-term improvements to service delivery, reliability, cybersecurity resilience and customer experience.

The City’s Enterprise Portfolio Management work involves overseeing 21 projects, which focus on rebuilding and modernizing applications, accelerating planned projects and replacing end-of-life applications. This work is focused on improving the customer experience and making City services and information more accessible to residents. Progress reports are being provided to the General Issues Committee on a regular basis as this work continues.

In addition to technology modernization, the City has implemented broader organizational and operational improvements to strengthen cybersecurity preparedness and accountability, including:

• Creation of dedicated cybersecurity leadership roles, including a Chief Information Officer (CIO) and the City’s first Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
• Strengthened governance, oversight and enterprise-wide coordination for cybersecurity and risk management
• Enhanced incident response protocols, escalation procedures and operational coordination
• Expanded mandatory staff training and cybersecurity awareness initiatives across the organization
• Improved monitoring, recovery capabilities and operational resilience measures
• Continued investment in workforce capacity, modernization and long-term cyber resilience

Progress reports are provided regularly to the General Issues Committee as this work continues.

Summary of progress (as of December 2025):

• Five projects have been completed
• Ten projects are in the execution phase
• Five projects are in the planning phase
• $16.4M of $30.4M in 2025 funding has been spent or committed
• 95% of projects are beyond the initiation phase
• 12 projects are on schedule, while four are tracking behind expected progress primarily due to competing resource pressures and interdependencies

An update was provided to Council on November 12, 2025 to the General Issues Committee through Report CM25007(a), with additional updates to Council provided regularly as this work progresses.

These changes are improving the City’s resilience, accountability and operational readiness while supporting more reliable service delivery for residents.

Our Progress and Accountability

The City has consistently communicated since the February 2024 cybersecurity incident, providing updates on system improvements, governance changes, organizational readiness, modernization work and ongoing progress.

This includes updates related to cybersecurity leadership, operational improvements, workforce capacity and actions being taken to strengthen how the City protects services and responds to future risks.

These updates, including Council reports, media releases and public materials, are available below in the Resources section and demonstrate the City’s commitment to transparency and ongoing communication.

Supporting Information

Protecting Your Information
Independent review has confirmed that no personal or health information was compromised as a result of the cybersecurity incident.

Ongoing Investigation
The investigation remains active and is being led by the Hamilton Police Service, with support from provincial and federal partners.

Costs and Recovery
Responding to and recovering from this incident has cost approximately $18.3 million through June 2025. A multi-year funding approach is in place to manage these costs responsibly and reduce long-term impacts on taxpayers.

A Stronger Foundation for the Future

The City of Hamilton continues to strengthen how it delivers services through more modern systems, stronger oversight, enhanced cybersecurity leadership and improved operational readiness.

Since the incident, the City has implemented significant governance, staffing and organizational changes designed to strengthen accountability, improve coordination and build greater internal cybersecurity capacity and resilience.

This includes dedicated cybersecurity leadership, expanded staff training and awareness initiatives, improved monitoring and stronger operational controls to better detect, respond to and manage cyber risks.

While cybersecurity risks continue to evolve globally, the City’s systems, oversight structures, leadership accountability and operational readiness are significantly stronger today than they were at the time of the incident.

This work reflects a stronger organization today, with a continued focus on improvement, accountability and delivering reliable, high-quality services for residents.

Resources

Key reports and updates related to the incident: