After warnings that federal and private networks could be possibly targeted by state-sponsored hackers, the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) has announced its detection of a “cyber incident” in its systems on March 18.
NRC’s website lost some functionality following the incident, as several applications were taken offline out of caution.
A spokesperson for the NRC has claimed that “mitigation actions” were immediately taken following the detection of the suspicious activity, and that an investigation is underway.
“As a scientific organization, the NRC remains constantly vigilant to the risk of cyber-attacks. Procedures and controls are in place at the NRC to mitigate these risks; these procedures and controls made it possible for the organization to respond quickly to the March 18 incident,” NRC director of communications Christine Aquino told CTV News.
The cyber incident comes nearly a month after the federal Communications Security Establishment issued a warning to all organizations that comprise Canada’s infrastructure, saying that they could be targeted by Russian hackers in retaliation to Canada’s support for Ukraine in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war.
The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS) had issued a similar bulletin in January following the data breach that occurred at Global Affairs Canada.
NRC has yet to specify if the cyber incident had anything to do with Russia, but stated that it is working with Shared Services Canada, the Treasury Board Secretariat and the CCCS on the matter.
CTV News reported that the NRC was similarly targeted by hackers in the past, citing a July 2014 cyberattack by Chinese threat actors. That incident led to a complete shutdown of the council’s computer network.
