Foreign Hackers Break In To Canadian Government Computers

An unprecedented cyber attack on the Finance Department and Treasury Board has been traced to internet servers in China.

Last month a memo was circulated through the two key government departments advising employees that they were temporarily not allowed to use the internet. That left members of the media scratching their heads, but it turns out the reason behind taking the departments offline was that internet security had been severely compromised by a group of hackers, apparently from China. The hackers gained access to highly classified information by using a nefariously simple scheme known as “spear-fishing.” Way back in 2002, Auditor-General Sheila Fraser warned that the government’s internet security protocols had severe weaknesses, but it wasn’t until 2010 that Ottawa began implementing serious reforms to the system.