DDoS Attack at Bordercheck Point in Canada
A cyberattack suspected to be carried out by a pro-Russia hacking group reportedly resulted in widespread service disruptions at several Canadian airports. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) confirmed to Recorded Future News that the connectivity issues that affected check-in kiosks and electronic gates at airports last week are the result of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. Such attacks work by flooding systems with junk traffic, disrupting their operations. CBSA's spokesperson said that they had restored all systems within a few hours. The Montreal Airport Authority (ADM) told the Canadian newspaper La Presse that a computer outage at check-in kiosks caused significant delays in the processing of arrivals for over an hour at border checkpoints throughout the country, including Montreal-Trudeau International Airport.
CBSA has not disclosed how a DDoS attack managed to breach the computer system used by check-in kiosks at airports. This system is supposed to be on a closed circuit, meaning it should not be connected to the internet, La Presse reported. CBSA did not respond to request to comment.