Port of Halifax and the ports of Montreal and Quebec were all hit by cyber attacks this week which are being investigated.
According to CBC news, a denial of service intrusion knocked the Port of Halifax’s public website offline but had no effect on internal data or operations. The port authorities in Montreal and Quebec are investigating similar issues with their websites. Denial of service attacks can flood the target website with traffic, causing it to crash.
Halifax Port Authority spokesperson Lane Farguson says problems with the website were noticed Wednesday morning. Traffic continues in the port.
Our external websites are currently unavailable right now and that is due to this ongoing denial of service attack and our IT department is working right now to resolve this issue
… Farguson told CBC News.
The Port of Montreal website also went offline at 7 a.m. on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the port told Radio-Canada their security team said port operations were unaffected and there was no risk of any data breach.
Renée Larouche, head of communications for the Port of Montreal said the port was not in crisis mode and there are alternatives for suppliers who want to contact the port, such as a telephone call, which do not require using the website.
The Port of Quebec website was also offline. The Quebec Port Authority said on Wednesday its IT team is still investigating whether that was the result of a cyberattack. Port operations have not been affected.
For further reading: Cyber security: Having the right mindset is vital
