The city of Fredericton, NB is improving its cybersecurity system in response to recent cyberattacks against local government units.

The municipality has agreed to pay local security company Bulletproof Solutions $324,360 to protect and improve Fredericton’s networks for the next three years.

“Cities are becoming big targets for cyber criminals,” City of Fredericton assistant director of finance, innovation and technology Adam Bell told CBC News.

Bell mentioned that there have been more attacks on municipalities during the last few months, adding that it was high time that the city upgraded its cybersecurity.

“There’s financial loss, which can be extreme, there’s loss of service to citizens, there’s loss of personal information,” he said.

Earlier this year, the neighbouring city of Saint John, NB discovered through an investigation that its parking system had been breached – dating as far back as 2017. Investigators found that an unknown source had gained access to confidential customer information, which included customers’ first and last names, mailing addresses, credit card numbers, expiry dates and the cards’ security codes.

Read more: NB city’s parking payment system sees “multiple” data breaches

“The damage can be very dangerous and very impactful,” remarked Bell. “We’ve seen damages in other places range from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars.”

As part of the arrangement, Bulletproof Solutions will be monitoring city networks for unusual activity. City staff will also be trained to spot cyber threats.