The federal government is grappling with what appears to be cyberattacks: a group of hackers based in India claims to have “sown chaos” in Ottawa. However, the sensitive data of Canadians would not have been compromised.
The Canadian Armed Forces reported that their website was inaccessible from a mobile device on Wednesday noon, but that the problem was resolved within a few hours.
Meanwhile, several pages on the House of Commons site continued to load slowly or incompletely Thursday due to an attack that officials say began Monday morning.
The Communes have confirmed that they are currently the target of a “distributed denial of services” type attack. This technique consists of overloading a site by multiplying connection requests to prevent real users from accessing it.
“House of Commons systems responded as expected to protect our network and IT infrastructure. However, some pages may no longer respond for a short period,” said the spokesperson for the House of Commons, Amélie Crosson, in a written statement Thursday morning.
“The House of Commons IT support team, in collaboration with our partners, implemented mitigation measures and restored services to appropriate levels. The IT team always monitors such activities continuously. »
Elections Canada was also the victim of a “distributed denial of service” attack for about an hour around midnight on Wednesday.
“This site does not host any sensitive data or information. It is separate from our main site, Elections.ca, and is hosted by an external service provider. It is in no way connected to the network that supports Elections.ca,” the federal agency said in a statement.
“Our systems are monitored in real time both internally and by the Canadian Center for Cyber Security, which allows us to quickly detect any anomalies on our platforms and systems. They are aware of the incident. »
Only nuisance
Contacted by The Canadian Press, the Communications Security Establishment reiterated that it does not usually confirm specific incidents and noted that it focuses on the type of behavior rather than the attribution of attacks .
“In general, distributed denial of service attacks are harmful events, but they very rarely put information at risk and do not have a permanent impact on systems,” said center spokesperson Ryan Foreman .
“Geopolitical events often lead to an increase in disruptive cyber campaigns. We continue to monitor any cyber threats and share information about these threats with our partners and stakeholders to help prevent incidents. »
On September 15, the center warned that “several distributed denial of service campaigns” had taken place in the preceding days. He renewed this warning on September 22 during the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Canada.
An Indian group claims
A group of hackers called “Indian Cyber Force” has claimed responsibility for the attacks that affected the Armed Forces and Elections Canada. The group also appears to have managed to infiltrate a few sites belonging to small businesses in Canada.
In claiming to be behind the attacks, the group referred to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who revealed in Parliament on September 18 that there were “credible” allegations that India was involved. in the murder of a Sikh independence activist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, wanted by India for years and shot dead in June.
The group posted several versions of a message riddled with spelling and grammar errors on restaurant and medical clinic sites.
On the sites concerned, green numbers could be seen on a black background, while war music was heard.
The message described Canada as a haven for terrorists — a “paradise,” even, in broken English — and insulted Sikh separatists.
Mr. Trudeau was also criticized for having “launched something without proof”.
Diplomatic tensions with India
These attacks occurred in a tense context between Canada and India.
It remains unclear the level of cooperation offered by Indian officials in the investigation into Mr. Trudeau’s allegations — and the extent to which allied countries, such as the United States, are defending the interests of Canada.
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
Neither made any mention of the controversy in Canada when they took part in a photo opportunity before their meeting began.
In a briefing with reporters before the meeting began, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller refused to speculate on what Mr. Blinken would say privately to Mr. Jaishankar.
“What I can tell you, however, is that we have been in constant dialogue with the Indian government on this issue and have urged them to cooperate with the Canadian authorities,” he mentioned.
— With information from James McCarten in Washington