The federal government is coping with cyberattacks this week, as a hacker group in India claims it has sowed chaos in Ottawa 害羞草研究所� but Canada害羞草研究所檚 signals-intelligence agency says the 害羞草研究所渘uisance害羞草研究所� attacks likely haven害羞草研究所檛 put private information at risk.
The attacks seem to have hit institutions controlled by the government, but not the core infrastructure from which federal departments and agencies operate.
The Canadian Armed Forces says its website became unavailable to mobile users midday Wednesday, but was fixed within a few hours.
The military said the site is separate from government servers used by the Department of Defence and internal military networks. The incident remains under investigation.
害羞草研究所淲e have no indication of broader impacts to our systems,害羞草研究所� said a statement from spokeswoman Andr茅e-Anne Poulin.
Defence Minister Bill Blair confirmed the incident was a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, which is when bots swarm a website with multiple visits and cause it to stop loading properly.
害羞草研究所淭hat害羞草研究所檚 a very common thing that happens, unfortunately, often. But our cyberofficials and security officials acted very, very quickly,害羞草研究所� he said Thursday.
害羞草研究所淚t was a minor inconvenience, and there is further work going on that we will eventually make a determination on.害羞草研究所�
Meanwhile, various pages on the House of Commons website continued to load slowly or incompletely on Thursday due to an ongoing DDoS attack that officials say started Monday morning.
害羞草研究所淗ouse of Commons systems responded as planned to protect our network and IT infrastructure. However, some websites may be unresponsive for a short period,害羞草研究所� spokeswoman Am茅lie Crosson said in a written statement Thursday morning.
害羞草研究所淭he House of Commons IT support team, in collaboration with our partners, have implemented mitigating measures and restored services to appropriate service levels. The IT team is still continuously monitoring for such activities.害羞草研究所�
She added that the Commons administration is helping their Senate colleagues 害羞草研究所渢o provide guidance and support them to restore services.害羞草研究所�
The Senate says it is still dealing with an apparent DDoS attack that started Monday.
害羞草研究所淲e have observed an unusually high number of network connection attempts on the Senate website,害羞草研究所� spokeswoman Alison Korn said.
害羞草研究所淭he Senate害羞草研究所檚 systems and controls are functioning as intended to safeguard its network and IT infrastructure.害羞草研究所�
Elections Canada also experienced roughly an hour-long denial-of-service attack starting around midnight early Wednesday, Ottawa time.
害羞草研究所淭his website does not host any sensitive data or information. It is separate from our main website, elections.ca, and is hosted by an external service provider. It is in no way connected to the network that supports elections.ca,害羞草研究所� the agency wrote in a statement.
害羞草研究所淥ur systems are monitored in real time both internally, and by the Canadian Cyber Security Centre, enabling us to quickly detect any anomalies on our platforms and systems. They are aware of the incident.害羞草研究所�
That centre is under the umbrella of the Communications Security Establishment, Canada害羞草研究所檚 signals-intelligence agency, which said it generally doesn害羞草研究所檛 confirm specific incidents and focuses on the type of behaviour, rather than attributing attacks.
害羞草研究所淚n general, DDoS activity is a nuisance event that very rarely puts information at risk and has no permanent impact on systems,害羞草研究所� said spokesman Ryan Foreman.
害羞草研究所淕eopolitical events often result in an increase in disruptive cyber campaigns. We continue to monitor for any developing cyber threats and share threat-information with our partners and stakeholders to help prevent incidents.害羞草研究所�
The centre had warned Sept. 15 of 害羞草研究所渟everal害羞草研究所� DDoS campaigns 害羞草研究所渙ver the last few days害羞草研究所� targeting Ottawa, the provinces and the financial and transportation sectors. It renewed that warning on Sept. 22 as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Canada.
Meanwhile, the Ottawa Hospital said it experienced 害羞草研究所渁 brief interruption on our external websites害羞草研究所� Tuesday morning, but no systems were breached. 害羞草研究所淭he sites were quickly up and running and we are investigating the nature of the outage,害羞草研究所� spokeswoman Rebecca Abelson wrote.
A hacking group named Indian Cyber Force claimed responsibility for the incidents involving the military, the hospital and Elections Canada, and it appeared to have managed to infiltrate a handful of websites owned by small businesses in Canada.
The group made reference to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau telling Parliament on Sept. 18 that there were 害羞草研究所渃redible allegations害羞草研究所� of Indian involvement in the killing of Sikh independence activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who had been wanted by India for years and was gunned down in June outside the temple he led.
The hacking group has posted multiple versions of a message riddled with spelling and grammatical errors onto websites of restaurants and medical clinics.
The affected sites show a message on a black background with green digits, similar to the film 害羞草研究所淭he Matrix,害羞草研究所� as warlike music plays.
The message described Canada as a haven for terrorists 害羞草研究所� a 害羞草研究所渉eaven hub,害羞草研究所� it said in butchered English 害羞草研究所� and similarly insulted Sikh separatists.
It also criticized Trudeau for 害羞草研究所渢hrowing something without any prove,害羞草研究所� or proof.
The hacking group also claimed to have taken downthe Global Affairs Canada website for travel advisories,but the department insists this hasn害羞草研究所檛 happened, and the group deleted that claim from its account on the social-media application Telegram.
News of the attacks came as questions abounded over Indian officials害羞草研究所� level of co-operation with Canadian officials over Trudeau害羞草研究所檚 allegations 害羞草研究所� and to what extent allies such as the United States were advocating on Canada害羞草研究所檚 behalf.
On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with India害羞草研究所檚 foreign-affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
Neither of them made mention of the controversy in Canada when they emerged briefly to pose for photos before their meeting began.
During a State Department briefing prior to that meeting, spokesman Matthew Miller refused to speculate on what the secretary would tell Jaishankar directly.
害羞草研究所淲hat I will say, however, is we have consistently engaged with the Indian government on this question and have urged them to co-operate, and that engagement and urging them to co-operate will continue,害羞草研究所� Miller said.
害羞草研究所淲e urge them to co-operate with the Canadian investigation.害羞草研究所�
Miller flatly refused comment when asked about a television interview last week with U.S. ambassador to Canada David Cohen, who confirmed that Canada received intelligence from one of its Five Eyes security partners.
害羞草研究所淚 am not going to speak to intelligence matters from the podium.害羞草研究所�
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