Northern News Services received a mysterious postcard at its Yellowknife office yesterday morning.

The card was addressed to managing editor Mike Bryant, with the message SA国际影视传媒淚nformation Breach at the GNWT: How (NOT) to respond to an information breach.SA国际影视传媒�

The reverse side of the postcard has the word FAIL emblazoned across the top followed by the text SA国际影视传媒淐ase Study: Employee Offboarding and Privacy -How the Government of the Northwest Territories failed to respect and protect the personal information of employees and former employees.SA国际影视传媒�

The postcard referred us to the website .

But when you try to access the website it seems to be blocked, displaying an error message and what appears to be a screenshot of a cease and desist order from the Government of the Northwest Territories.

A department of justice spokesperson confirmed the validity of the notice on Wednesday evening.

SA国际影视传媒淲e are solicitors for the Government of the Northwest Territories,SA国际影视传媒� the text states.

SA国际影视传媒淏e advised the website infobreach.ca, is currently disseminating the personal information of several Government of the Northwest Territories (SA国际影视传媒淕NWTSA国际影视传媒�) employees without their consent. We have reason to believe that you are responsible for this dissemination and serious breach of those employeesSA国际影视传媒� privacy. 

"The GNWT demands that you cease and desist any further dissemination of the personal information and immediately shut down the Website. If you fail to shut down the Website by 5pm on December 21, 2018, the GNWT will pursue any and all legal remedies available to it. We look forward to your prompt compliance.SA国际影视传媒�

This message is bordered by the words SA国际影视传媒淗TTP 451:SA国际影视传媒� and SA国际影视传媒淭HIS IS CENSORSHIPSA国际影视传媒� in bright red text.

The error code HTTP 451 means the site requested is unavailable for legal reasons, such as being blocked by a government. The code takes its name from Ray BradburySA国际影视传媒檚 dystopic novel Fahrenheit 451, in which books are outlawed.

SA国际影视传媒淎s the GNWT became aware of the site disseminating unauthorized personal information about GNWT employees late in December 2018, GNWT legal counsel issued a demand to take the information down,SA国际影视传媒� said Sue Glowach, a Department of Justice spokesperson, in an email. Glowach did not say specifically what kind of information was on the site, only that it was personal.

SA国际影视传媒淭he information contained on the site did not have permission to be released under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act,SA国际影视传媒� she said.

SA国际影视传媒淚t involved personal information of employees. Consent has not been given to share this information.SA国际影视传媒� A small number of GNWT employees were involved in the privacy breach, and steps have been taken to inform them, Glowach said.

ItSA国际影视传媒檚 not clear what the purpose of the website is or even when it was created.

A capture of the website from the Internet Archive in simply shows the words SA国际影视传媒淲atch This Space. We make technology secure!SA国际影视传媒�

The site was only crawled by the Internet Archive once, meaning this is the only existing snapshot of the site before it was blocked.

Glowach said the GNWT is aware who was behind the website, adding SA国际影视传媒渢here are also privacy considerations related to the operator of the website.SA国际影视传媒�