Elora's paid parking program back to status quo after apparent hack

ELORA ― Some residents and visitors who parked in downtown Elora yesterday may have run into difficulty paying.

It appears the township's new municipal parking program was hacked.

A notice posted to the Township of Centre Wellington's website says paid parking and parking ticket processing are currently unavailable while the township addresses a "technical issue" affecting the system.

"Staff are working to resolve it as quickly as possible," says the notice. "We will updates as more information becomes available."

A follow-up media advisory from the township said staff were made aware of an issue involving links from its paid parking system to the payment platform at approximately 3:07 p.m. on Wednesday.

As a precautionary measure, the advisory says paid parking, including penalty notice payments, has been temporarily suspended while the township works with its service provider to investigate and resolve the issue.

"Based on the information provided by the service provider to date, there is no evidence that any personal information, payment details, or financial data have been compromised," said the advisory.

As verified by reporters at EloraFergusToday, anyone who clicked the penalty notice at approximately 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday evening, was redirected from the township's penalty notice payment website to various websites, including Ali Express and various sites containing adult content.

Several residents observed township staff duct taping garbage bags to cover the paid parking kiosks and QR codes throughout the day, which were still in place as of 10 a.m. Thursday morning.

Originally proposed to start in January, the township's paid program launched in May and requires visitors to pay for parking in two different core zones in Elora's downtown areas via kiosks installed throughout the lower downtown core and/or via a website.

The Township of Centre Wellington did not immediately respond to a request for .

Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program