Goldcorp breached by hackers trying to extort money

Canada's Goldcorp Inc. on Thursday said its computer network had been compromised and the gold mining company was working to determine the scope and impact of the data breach.

Vancouver-based Goldcorp's internal security team and independent technology security firms are gathering facts and informing affected employees, but CEO David Garofalo said he was not overly worried.

"The extent of the data breach is not of significant concern for us because we're a public company and anything of a material nature has to be in the public domain by law anyways. So we really don't have any material undisclosed information," Garofalo said in an interview.

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Day-to-day operations are unaffected by the hack, he added. Security teams are working on an action plan that includes preventative modifications to computer processes and increased network security at the world's third-biggest gold producer by market value.

Garofalo would not say what material had been mined or whether hackers had been in contact with the company.

"I don't think it's personal. I think there's a criminal element out there, unfortunately, that is making a living doing this - where they hack into computer systems globally in order to try to extort money," he said.

The Daily Dot website reported on Wednesday that hackers had claimed to have "badly hacked" Goldcorp and dumped private company and employee data online.

The data included what appeared to be correspondence with employees on their performance and pay rates, bank account information, budget information for 2016 and international contacts, the Daily Dot reported.

Hackers are preparing more Goldcorp data dumps, the online newspaper said.

"If something gets dumped, the police will look into it and we'll go from there," Garofalo said, referring to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Shares of Goldcorp, which reported better-than-expected quarterly results on Wednesday, were 5 per cent higher in late session trade on Thursday.