OTTAWA: The Canadian government said that its global affairs department suffered a data breach and that there was unauthorized access to personal information of users including employees.
Global Affairs Canada
(
GAC
), in a statement, said it activated an unplanned IT outage on Jan. 24 to "address the discovery of malicious cyber activity."
The Canadian government's
Department of Global Affairs
(GAC) has confirmed a data breach, but the exact date of the incident remains unknown. According to undisclosed sources cited by Canadian media, internal systems were vulnerable from December 20 to January 24.
According to CBC quoting a GAC memo to staff , " e-mail traffic and files on personal and shared drives "may have been compromised" and "sensitive corporate information, such as credit cards and banking data, may have been breached."
However, GAC has assured that its critical services and external communication channels were not affected, and they are currently working to restore full connectivity with the help of their IT teams. The department has also taken immediate action to mitigate the breach and is reaching out to those who have been impacted.
In order to ensure uninterrupted work, employees working remotely in
Canada
have been provided with alternative solutions to carry out their duties.
While the department has not disclosed specific details about the breach, they are reportedly taking the necessary steps to address the situation and protect the affected individuals.
.
(with input from agencies)
English (US) ·