{"id":1850,"date":"2025-09-18T15:42:37","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T21:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpsites.ucalgary.ca\/jacobson-cpsc\/?p=1850"},"modified":"2025-09-18T15:42:42","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T21:42:42","slug":"when-hackers-go-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpsites.ucalgary.ca\/jacobson-cpsc\/2025\/09\/18\/when-hackers-go-north\/","title":{"rendered":"When Hackers go North!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

House of Commons of Canada Data Breach via Microsoft Vulnerability (August 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 1: Cyberattack illustration of Canada\u2019s Parliament (image generated by ChatGPT).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you think hackers only go after banks or tech companies then think twice. Turns out, they have a thing for Parliaments too.\u00a0According to a\u00a0CBC News report<\/a>, in August 2025 Canada\u2019s House of Commons was struck by a cyberattack that caused a significant data breach.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The House of Commons broke the news out to staff via email, alerting them that there had been an information breach. Apparently, a malicious actor was able to penetrate their database via a Microsoft vulnerability. Some information the hacker obtained has not been made public. The data included employees\u2019 names, job titles, office locations and email addresses, as well as information regarding their House of Commons-managed devices.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada\u2019s Communications Security Establishment (CSE) confirmed that they are very much aware of the attack and are working with the House of Commons for support, but have not yet pinpointed who was behind it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent threat report from the CSE says that adversarial nations like China, Russia and Iran are increasingly behind cyber threats to Canada. But, they say it\u2019s too early to tell who or what is behind this particular breach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Attribution of a cyber incident is difficult. Investigating cyber threat activity takes resources and time, and there are many considerations involved in the process of attributing malicious cyber activity,” said in a a CSE statement<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, CSE has called on members of the House of Commons to stay vigilant as the information that has been accessed during this breach could be used for scams, blackmail and impersonation of politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is still an ongoing investigation that the House of Commons in collaboration with national security partners is conducting, but they have not released any information as to how many employees were affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is this a threat?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n