Canada’s foreign affairs department experienced a “cyber incident” last week that is still under investigation and has left the organization without access to some “internet-based services,” federal government has confirmed.
In a statement the Office of the Chief Information Officer and Shared Services Canada said that the issue at Global Affairs Canada was detected on Jan. 19.
That is the same day that the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security issued a bulletin warning operators of critical infrastructure in Canada to be aware and take steps to mitigate Russian state-sponsored cyber threat activity.
The Communications Security Establishment (CSE), through Canada’s Cyber Centre, said on Jan. 19 it was aware of foreign cyber threat activities, including Russian-backed actors, targeting Canadian critical infrastructure network operators and their operational and information technology.
According to the statement issued on Monday, mitigation actions have been taken and while “critical services” are still functioning, “work is underway” to restore access to the services not currently available.
“Cyber threats can result from system or application vulnerabilities, or from deliberate, persistent, targeted attacks by outside actors to gain access to information,” reads the government statement. Both CSE and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security are part of the “ongoing” investigation.
“At this time, there is no indication that any other government departments have been impacted by this incident,” Monday’s statement said. The federal government has not indicated if it is aware of the source of the “incident.”
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Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly speaks during a news conference, Tuesday, October 26, 2021 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
