The Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSE) and its Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (Cyber Centre) continue to urge Canadian organizations to remain vigilant during periods of heightened geopolitical tensions and high-profile events.
Although malicious cyber activity can occur at any time, organizations should be especially vigilant during these periods as they can draw the attention of cyber threat actors, including ideologically motivated individuals or groups targeting organizations they perceive as adversaries. These actors may try to disrupt services, deface websites, attract publicity or undermine confidence in institutions and organizations.
Threats may include distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against public-facing websites and online services, as well as website defacement and other disruptive activity. These attacks can disrupt operations, cause financial losses, damage reputations and reduce access to critical services. They may also be used to distract defenders from other malicious cyber activity targeting an organization at the same time.
All Canadian organizations, especially essential service providers and critical infrastructure operators, should review their cyber security posture, and consult the following Cyber Centre resources.
- Read our previous statement on a distributed denial of service (DDoS) campaign targeting multiple Canadian sectors
- Adopt our Cross-Sector Cyber Security Readiness Goals
- Consult our Top 10 IT security actions to protect Internet connected networks and information
- Review and implement the advice and guidance on:
- Defending against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks
- Distributed denial of service attacks - prevention and preparation
- Distributed Denial of Service campaign targeting multiple Canadian sectors
- Website defacement
- Developing your incident response plan
- Security considerations for critical infrastructure
- Protect your operational technology
- Joint guidance on the principles of operational technology cyber security
- Joint guidance on isolating vital systems
- Explore our Critical infrastructure resilience and escalated threat navigation initiative
The Cyber Centre continues to work closely with government, critical infrastructure operators, industry partners, and international allies to monitor the cyber threat environment and support the protection of Canadian systems and networks.
Organizations should act now to strengthen their cyber defences and promptly report cyber incidents or suspicious cyber activity to the Cyber Centre through our online portal.