Cyber security officials urge 'vigilance' against threats as Zelenskyy visits Canada

As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits Canada, top security officials are re-issuing a call to "adopt a heightened state of vigilance, and to bolster … awareness of and protection against malicious cyber threats."

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The Communications Security Establishment (CSE) and Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (Cyber Centre) emphasized the call especially for operators of government and critical infrastructure websites.

"As previously noted, we have observed that it's not uncommon to see increased distributed denial of service (DDoS) campaigns against NATO countries that support Ukraine, or host visits from Ukrainian government officials," the CSE said in a release published Friday.

Zelenskyy is in Canada to address Parliament Friday in his first visit to Ottawa since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The House of Commons changed its sitting plans for the occasion, seeing the chamber floor opened to Senators, and other dignitaries who will pack in to the viewing galleries above.

The Cyber Centre says Canadian organizations should visit its website to learn more about DDoS attacks and how to deal with them.

DDoS attacks are when an adversary overwhelms a server to deny access to others, but in the process the site is not hacked into. Since earlier this week, there has been a "persistent" attempt to disrupt federal government sites, as well as those in Canadian finance, transportation and energy sectors, according to CSE.

The CSE and the Cyber Centre say they are working closely with other government agencies to "neutralize threats when they occur."

The CSE added Canada and its agencies, like all countries and organizations, are always subject to ongoing cyber threats and work every day to defend against them.

"On any given day, CSE's defensive systems can block upwards of six billion events targeting GC networks. These defensive actions are a result of CSE’s existing dynamic cyber defence capabilities which remain ready to defend Government of Canada systems and help protect against future attacks."

'UNSHAKABLE' SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE

In April, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said attempts to bring down Canadian government infrastructure by Russian hackers will "in no way" dissuade Canada's unwavering support for Ukraine.

Trudeau made those comments, appearing with the Ukrainian prime minister, after a cyber attack brought down the prime ministerial website for a brief time.

"In case anyone was wondering, Russia being able to bring down an official Government of Canada webpage for a few hours, is in no way going to dissuade us from our unshakeable support of Ukraine," Trudeau said.

A day prior, a handful of other government websites also failed to load, with a so-called "hactivist" group purporting to be behind what appeared to be DDoS attacks.

At the time, the CSE would not confirm or deny the Russian hacker claims but said it was "aware of reports that some Government of Canada websites have been off line."

PAST CYBER SECURITY WARNINGS

Following the disruption of Canadian government websites, the CSE told CTV News Canada saw a "notable rise" in cyber threat activity by Russian-aligned actors.

"These [attacks] are attention-grabbing, but do not mean the website has been hacked or that any information has been compromised," said Sami Khoury, head of the Cyber Centre, during an April briefing on cyber threats to Canada's critical infrastructure.

According to its Cyber Threat Bulletin, the CSE said it expects "medium- and high-sophistication actors will almost certainly continue to target (Canadian government infrastructure) for the next 12 months and beyond." 

--With files from CTV News Senior Digital Parliamentary Reporter Rachel Aiello