Ottawa warned about hackers weeks before crippling cyber attack: CSIS report

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ottawa-warned-about-hackers-weeks-before-crippling-cyber-attack-csis-report/article2219129/?from=sec434

By Jim Bronskill
The Canadian Press
Oct. 30, 2011

Canada's spy agency warned the government that federal departments were 
under assault from rogue hackers just weeks before an attack crippled 
key computers.

A newly released intelligence assessment, prepared last November, 
sounded a security alarm about malicious, targeted emails disguised as 
legitimate messages -- the very kind that shut down networks two months 
later.

"The systems and networks used by various Canadian government 
departments have been attacked directly or indirectly," says the 
Canadian Security Intelligence Service report.

A declassified copy of the top secret intelligence assessment, 
Cyberattacks on Canadian Government Departments: An Overview, was 
obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

Extensive portions of the Nov. 4, 2010, report - including what are 
likely direct references to foreign suspects - have been excised due to 
ongoing sensitivity of the material.

[...]


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