The Hydro-Québec website as well as the application of the Crown corporation remained inaccessible around 7:15 a.m. Thursday morning, due to a cyberattack claimed by the group NoName057(16) on Telegram.
Hydro-Québec spokesperson Francis Labbé, however, confirmed the return to service of the Info-Panes service, which had also been paralyzed by the computer attack that could be observed a few hours earlier, around 3 a.m. .
Any attempt to access the address www.hydroquebec.com resulted in the appearance of a page indicating that the site is inaccessible.
Francis Labbé confirmed to The Canadian Press that the company’s critical systems had not been affected. Data and personal information could therefore be protected, he said.
However, no recovery time for the website and the application could be announced at the start of the morning.
The representative of the state company added that it was not yet able to hypothesize the identity of persons or group responsible for the cyberattack.
Over the past few days, a few Canadian organizations have been targeted by cyberattacks claimed by pro-Russian groups.
After Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s site on Tuesday, the sites of the Port of Quebec, the Laurentian Bank and the Prevost bus company were blocked by hackers.
On Wednesday afternoon, the mayoress of Montreal, Valérie Plante, announced that the Port of Montreal had been affected.
Francis Labbé reported that a team of about 300 people was at the service of the state-owned company to prevent cyberattacks as much as possible and to counter them when they occur.
With Duty
Further details will follow.