A group of Indian hackers claimed responsibility for a recent cyberattack that temporarily took down Canadian military websites.
The attack happened Wednesday, causing the official website of the Canadian Armed Forces to be inaccessible for mobile users for almost two hours.
According to Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair, the breach was a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack involving swarming a website with multiple bot visits to cause it to stop loading properly.
He said such attacks are common, and the country’s cybersecurity officials were able to act on it “very quickly.”
“It was a minor inconvenience, and there is further work going on that we will eventually make a determination on,” Blair stated.
Apart from the Canadian Armed Forces, the Indian-led breach caused problems to various pages on the House of Commons website and the official website of the Senate.
Warned Beforehand
Earlier this month, the “Indian Cyber Force” warned Ottawa to “get ready to feel the power” of its attacks on Canadian cyberspace.
The country’s intelligence agency also cautioned its information and technology administrators to be prepared for a sudden increase in cyberattacks due to recent “geopolitical events.”
Relations between the two countries have recently been tense after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly accused Indian government agents of participating in the killing of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Nijjar was a Canadian citizen assassinated in Surrey, Canada, on June 18.
New Delhi firmly rejected the allegation, saying the Canadian government’s “anti-India politics really crossed the limits.”
‘No Broader Impacts’
Despite the cyberattack, Canada’s signals intelligence agency said no private information was put at risk.
The site is reportedly separate and isolated from the Government of Canada and the Department of National Defence websites.
“This website does not host any sensitive data or information. It is separate from our main website, elections.ca, and is hosted by an external service provider,” the agency announced.
“We have no indication of broader impacts to our systems,” it added.
Canadian Forces continue to investigate the breach.