Canadian Ministry Of Foreign Affairs Experiences Cyberattack, Some Services Still Stop

JAKARTA - Hackers launched a cyberattack against Canada's Ministry of Foreign Affairs last week, with some services still stalled, officials said Monday without revealing who Ottawa said was responsible.

The incident was detected last Wednesday, a day before Canada's signal intelligence agency said operators of critical infrastructure networks should step up their defenses against Russian state-sponsored threats.

"Critical services are currently functioning. Some access to the internet and internet-based services are currently not functioning," said a statement from the Treasury Board, which has overall responsibility for government operations.

"There is no indication that other government departments were affected," the statement continued, adding no further details would be released.

Neither the Finance Council nor the foreign ministry responded when asked if Russian actors were responsible.

Canada is known to have taken a firm stance against Russia's military build-up on the Ukrainian border. Moreover, the country rarely talks about hacking into its systems.

In 2011, officials said "highly sophisticated Chinese state-sponsored actors" had broken into a leading research agency. Beijing denied these accusations at the time.

In 2014, a former Canadian cabinet minister said Chinese operators were suspected of hacking into the Treasury Council and Ministry of Finance in 2011.