Three of the Canadian government’s key departments including the Finance department, Defence Research and Development, and the Treasury Board got hacked last week:
A cyberattack, apparently from computers based in China, gave hackers access to highly classified information and was first detected in early January.
The attacks forced the government departments that were targeted to disconnect temporarily from the internet.
It appeared at first that only the systems of Canada’s financial nerve centres — the Finance Department and the Treasury Board — were threatened.
But CBC News also learned Thursday of an attack on Defence Research and Development Canada, a civilian agency of the Department of National Defence. Reporters are trying to confirm whether a fourth department also had its computer system penetrated.
Charming. Prime Minster Stephen Harper assured Canadians that the government was doing all it can to make sure that it has defenses in place to stop attacks like these. You’ll excuse me if that statement doesn’t exactly give me the warm fuzzies.
Now the Chinese denies that it was involved in this hack:
The Chinese government is firmly opposed to hacking and other criminal acts, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said at a press conference Thursday. China is also a victim of computer hacking, he said. “The allegation that China supports hacking is groundless,” he said.
The problem is that China has so called patriot hackers which give the Chinese government plausible deniability. So that allows the Chinese to get info from hacks without getting their hands dirty. This should be a wake up call to governments and business. They need to get their cyber defenses in order to stop stuff like this from happening. Otherwise they’ll be just another victim of hackers.
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This entry was posted on February 20, 2011 at 9:30 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Canada, Hacked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Canadian Government Gets Hacked…. China Denies Involvement
Three of the Canadian government’s key departments including the Finance department, Defence Research and Development, and the Treasury Board got hacked last week:
A cyberattack, apparently from computers based in China, gave hackers access to highly classified information and was first detected in early January.
The attacks forced the government departments that were targeted to disconnect temporarily from the internet.
It appeared at first that only the systems of Canada’s financial nerve centres — the Finance Department and the Treasury Board — were threatened.
But CBC News also learned Thursday of an attack on Defence Research and Development Canada, a civilian agency of the Department of National Defence. Reporters are trying to confirm whether a fourth department also had its computer system penetrated.
Charming. Prime Minster Stephen Harper assured Canadians that the government was doing all it can to make sure that it has defenses in place to stop attacks like these. You’ll excuse me if that statement doesn’t exactly give me the warm fuzzies.
Now the Chinese denies that it was involved in this hack:
The Chinese government is firmly opposed to hacking and other criminal acts, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said at a press conference Thursday. China is also a victim of computer hacking, he said. “The allegation that China supports hacking is groundless,” he said.
The problem is that China has so called patriot hackers which give the Chinese government plausible deniability. So that allows the Chinese to get info from hacks without getting their hands dirty. This should be a wake up call to governments and business. They need to get their cyber defenses in order to stop stuff like this from happening. Otherwise they’ll be just another victim of hackers.
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This entry was posted on February 20, 2011 at 9:30 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Canada, Hacked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.