An unprecedented cyberattack on the Canadian government, apparently from China, has given foreign hackers access to highly classified federal information and forced at least two key departments off the internet, CBC News has learned.
The attack, first detected in early January, left Canadian counter-espionage agents scrambling to determine how much sensitive government information may have been stolen and by whom.
Highly placed sources tell CBC News the cyberattacks were traced back to computer servers in China.
They caution, however, that there is no way of knowing whether the hackers are Chinese, or some other nationality routing their cybercrimes through China to cover their tracks.
So far, officials in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government have been all but mum on the extraordinary breach of security.
Found by Cinàedh.
The Green Party is digging up dirt on the Conservatives.
Ha, probably from someone in the U.S. so they could push Canada into joining forces with the whole Tarsands info sharing endeavor. Load of crap.
Governments should NEVER PUT SENSITIVE INFO ON THE PUBLIC INTERNET !!! Especially the US of A !!! They can and do, get private T1 lines and should compele telecoms to provide then “in the National Interest” to keep their systems out of the reach of hackers – both the Pimply Kind and the Black Hat kind !!!
3 Jummy – reminds me that Adam Curry (frickin’ genius that he is) has this great theory that every time someone publishes the number 33 it’s a secret code saying they’ve completed some mission or task. One he promoted in the last No Agenda was that Microsoft fixing 33 security problems was a message to the NSA. I guess MS and NSA never heard of encrypted e-mail or they figure general announcements are more secure then the internet. (snark – snark = snark)
It’s a sad world Curry lives in.
All your maple trees are belong to us
33?
I still remember a verse from a 1967 A-Z primer on Canada:
I hope the Chinese had more luck, but I doubt it. Canada is too honest a place.
When we fuck up, we proudly own up to it, like we did when our military went to Somalia and just ended up killing a bunch of teenagers.
*Gerda Munsigner was news in Canada when I was a kid.
I got hacked by the Chinese too. It feels nice to be included.
Why don’t these Chinese hackers spoof the attack as coming from somewhere else? Surely they would just hijack a system in another foreign country and launch the attack from there?
There must be so many pirated (unpatched) versions of Windows running in China it must be the easiest place in the world to take over a bunch of machines.
I have no doubt that the Chinese are active in all kinds of industrial espionage (and millitary against the US and their neighbors). But hacking the Canadian Govenrment without covering their tracks! I call BS on this. China is probably just a handy stepping-stone for all foriegn intelligence agencies that are engaged in this kind of thing.
For any that dont understand the internet..
THE PIPES..
there are only so many DIRECT connections to other locations OUTSIDE the USA.. 14?
And the Biggest pipes only go to certain places..4?
So, where would you Jump to, to get a Direct pipe and a BIG pipe? CHINA.
NOW, either setup a remote Hub inside China or Just Bounce OFF the GREAT WALL(?) with Faked IP data.
NOW,
lets get an idea. If this was a DDOS attack, where 1,000,000 connections were ALL swarming your sites, from 1 direction…you would PROBABLY be able to see it coming..(if the MAIN IP was monitoring ANYTHING)
If this was a direct ATTACK by FEW determined hackers, it could sneak in..
NOW,
What was lost? That is the big question.
ANYONE, ANY CORP, ANY GOV…that leaves pertinent IMPORTANT information ONLINE is STUPID/A FOOL/AN IDIOT..
This is an inflammatory Article, that SAYS NOTHING. THE MOST they should have gotten, is a BUNCH of names and pass codes, which can be changed.