Statistics Canada website down as internet hit by millions of hack attempts
Canadian government websites, including Statistics Canada, were temporarily taken offline as a precautionary measure against a global PHP coding vulnerability. Officials stated there is no evidence that federal information has been compromised.
Why it matters
The incident underscores the systemic risks posed by vulnerabilities in widely used web infrastructure and the importance of proactive cybersecurity measures.
The Canadian government’s chief information officer says there’s no sign a massive global website coding vulnerability has led to federal information being compromised.
In a statement on Thursday, the chief information officer said officials became aware of the issue impacting PHP coding, which underwrites roughly 70 per cent of the world’s websites, on Oct. 21.
“Under certain conditions, these vulnerabilities could allow a malicious cyber actor to run unauthorized commands on affected systems without authentication,” the statement said.
“Security updates are being applied to address these vulnerabilities. While these measures are being implemented, some government of Canada websites may be temporarily unavailable or experience service disruptions. In these cases, work is underway to restore access as quickly and securely as possible.”
“There is no indication at this time that any Government of Canada systems or information holdings have been compromised.”
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