Global Affairs Canada (GAC), the Canadian government’s foreign affairs arm, said it was investigating a data breach on its internal network.
“Early results [of the investigation] Indicates that there has been a data breach and that there has been unauthorized access to the personal information of users, including employees. “The ministry is contacting those affected to take mitigation steps to ensure the safety of sensitive and personal information,” GAC told Global News.
The data breach affected remote access to GAC’s network and several employees were asked to stop working remotely. The data breach affected his two internal drives, email, calendar, and multiple employee contacts, according to CBC News, which viewed emails sent to employees.
According to CBC News, another email sent to staff contained vulnerabilities in GAC’s internal systems between December 20, 2023 and January 24, 2024, and the Secure Integrated Global Network (SIGNET). ) It was written that the information of people using the laptop could be leaked. SIGNET is a secure network used by GAC.
The data breach occurred because a virtual private network (VPN) managed by the Canadian federal government’s shared services that remote workers use to access GAC’s headquarters was compromised. The scope of the data breach is still unknown.
“Following the discovery that a virtual private network (VPN) managed by Shared Services Canada (SSC) was compromised and used to access the Global Affairs Canada (GAC) headquarters VPN, we are We continue to take several steps to protect personal information and secure our corporate networks, an internal message to staff said, as reported by Global News. The details of the attacker were not disclosed.
A statement released by the Canadian government said: “International Affairs Canada is working with IT partners, including Shared Services Canada and the Canadian Cyber Security Center (part of the Communications Security Facility), to restore full connectivity as soon as possible. ” he said.
GAC also fell victim to a cyberattack in January 2022, resulting in its network being shut down for several days. At the time, it was believed, although unconfirmed, that malicious elements backed by Russia carried out the attack due to Canada’s support for Ukraine in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. It was getting worse.
The number of cyberattacks against government agencies is increasing. Government agencies, by their very nature, hold vast amounts of citizen data, making them vulnerable to cyberattacks. Last year, several US government agencies were hit by a global cyber attack that exploited vulnerabilities in his MOVEit application. Recently, Emsisoft revealed that Russian ransomware group Clop had similarly claimed responsibility. Furthermore, the UK government’s parliamentary committee’s report on ‘Hostage to Destiny: Ransomware and UK National Security’ warned that the UK is at risk of a ‘catastrophic ransomware attack’.
