The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has confirmed that its computer network has been the victim of an “alarming” cyberattack. However, it assures that this attack had no impact on its operations and that the safety of Canadians was not at risk.
The situation is evolving quickly, but there is currently no impact on RCMP operations, Marie-Åve Breton, spokeswoman for the organization, confirmed Friday afternoon.
While a breach of this magnitude is alarming, our teams' rapid work and cyberattack mitigation strategies illustrate the work we have done to detect and prevent threats, she continued.
The RCMP says it has launched an investigation into the cyberattack to determine the extent of the damage, adding that there are currently no serious consequences listed for intelligence agencies.
Spokeswoman Marie-Ève Breton said police had launched a criminal investigation.
A series of violations
Last January, the federal government confirmed that Global Affairs Canada had been the victim of a security breach lasting just over a month that may have exposed personal information and emails from several of its employees.
The organization then implemented security protocols to respond to this situation, including asking its employees not to work remotely and temporarily disabling its system.
Defense Minister Anita Anand also expressed concerns about the vulnerability of Canada's infrastructure, which has increasingly become the target of cyberattacks and poses an increased risk to the Canadian economy.
With information from Portal and The Canadian Press