{"id":1379,"date":"2022-02-02T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpsites.ucalgary.ca\/isec-601-f21\/?p=1379"},"modified":"2022-02-02T04:34:24","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T11:34:24","slug":"canadian-foreign-affairs-ministry-hacked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpsites.ucalgary.ca\/isec-601-f21\/2022\/02\/02\/canadian-foreign-affairs-ministry-hacked\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Foreign Affairs Ministry HACKED!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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On the 25th<\/sup> of January 2022 CNN reports an unpleasant news for the public.2<\/sup> Claiming that there has been a cyberattack on the foreign affairs ministry of Canada also known as Global Affairs Canada (GAC), causing disruption to internet – based activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Global Affairs Canada Logo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is Global Affairs Canada?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In order to fully explain the magnitude of the situation it is necessary to give a little background about the organization itself. According to Wikipedia GAC is the department of the Government of Canada that maintains Canada’s diplomatic and consular relations, promotes Canadian international trade, and leads Canada’s international development and humanitarian assistance.3<\/sup> Considering they handle many various activities on different levels, they contain a tremendous amount of data. So now you know what’s at risk here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the Cyberattack<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Cyberattack<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A day before the incident was detected, the Canadian intelligence agency advised GAC to strengthen their defenses against possible attacks from Russia. Do you smell something fishy? Me too!! According to a source it was later discovered that GAC had been a predicted target of cyberattack4<\/sup>. After the attack the government claims that they weren\u2019t able to locate the origin of the attack. Turns out the government suspects this particular cyberattack was from the Russians. Their reason behind this alleged accusation was that there has been rising tension between both countries over political reason, so this attack was meant to provoke the Canadian government. Considering the increasing number of reinforcements of the Russian army on the Ukrainian border, this claim might be true, but the government does not have sufficient evidence to prove that Russia was behind the attack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did it happen?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If we talk about how the hackers were able to bypass all security measures and easily grant themselves access to GAC\u2019s network, it is suspected that hackers used phishing emails. However, the article by Oh Canada1<\/sup> states, \u201cIt is unclear how the hackers obtained access to the GAC network<\/em>\u201d showing that with all the resources and advanced technology the government still was not able to identify the hackers. This incident caught eye of many residents in Canada since the government has a huge amount of data on its citizens. Many Canadian residents are now having second thoughts about their data\u2019s security. Questions like, \u201cSince the government was not able to protect themselves from such hackers, what about us? Are we safe?\u201d overwhelm their mind continuously. It is indeed the right question because we have put a lot of trust in the government hoping they would go to extreme measures in order to keep our data secure. So, what happens when they fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Measures and Takeaway<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After recovering from this incident, the government strictly informed the public that they will be enhancing their data security from now onwards, they claim that with the use of tokenization it will reduce the chances of such incidents from happening again. In addition to that they plan on using a new form of encryption i.e. format \u2013 preserving encryption which will be applied to all sensitive data in order to make it worthless even if hackers got a hold of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hopefully these measures will in reality help boost the government\u2019s defense mechanisms, but on an individual level everyone is responsible for their own privacy. We have just seen a government fail in their security measures, therefore, now we cannot just rely on governments to provide us with the necessary security. Rather we should take a step for ourselves and find out how secure our data actually is in the real world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is your take on the Canadian Government? Feel free to comment below and share your thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
  1. Suciu , P. (2022, January 28). Oh Canada \u2013 foreign affairs ministry gets hacked. ClearanceJobs. https:\/\/news.clearancejobs.com\/2022\/01\/28\/oh-canada-foreign-affairs-ministry-gets-hacked\/<\/a><\/li>
  2. Lyngaas, S. (2022, January 25). Hackers Target Canada’s Foreign Ministry in Cyber Attack. CNN. https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/01\/25\/politics\/hackers-canada-cyber-attack\/index.html<\/a><\/li>
  3. Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, January 6). Global Affairs Canada. Wikipedia. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Global_Affairs_Canada<\/a><\/li>
  4. Global Affairs Canada suffers a cyberattack amid Russia-Ukraine tensions. teiss. (2022, January 26). https:\/\/www.teiss.co.uk\/news\/global-affairs-canada-suffers-a-cyberattack-amid-russia-ukraine-tensions-9482<\/a><\/li>
  5. Global Affairs Canada Logo. Global Affairs Canada Logo. https:\/\/newpathway.ca\/global-affairs-sidesteps-np-un-questions\/<\/a><\/a><\/li>
  6. Cyberattack. https:\/\/www.netsparker.com\/blog\/web-security\/5-ways-a-cyberattack-can-hurt\/<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    On the 25th of January 2022 CNN reports an unpleasant news for the public.2 Claiming that there has been a cyberattack on the foreign affairs ministry of Canada also known as Global Affairs Canada (GAC), causing disruption to internet – based activities. What is Global Affairs Canada? In order to fully explain the magnitude of … <\/p>\n

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