DDOS Cyberattack at Canadian Primary Eastern Seaports: Halifax, Montreal and Quebec.
On April 14, 2023, in the early morning hours, the Port of Halifax in Nova Scotia and the Ports of Montreal and Quebec suffered a “distributed denial of service” (DDOS) cyberattack. Unlike ransomware attacks, these attacks flood network servers with so much internet traffic that it overwhelms a website, rendering it inaccessible or useless for legitimate users. The attacks appeared to be directed at the ports’ websites, causing them to crash for several hours. Further, Quebec’s state-owned electricity provider Hydro-Quebec also experienced a similar cyber assault the next morning.
Despite these attacks, it appears none of the ports’ operations or internal systems were impacted by the incident. The Port of Halifax’s spokesperson Lane Ferguson emphasized that their “internal systems continue to operate normally” and “port operations have not been affected.” Similarly, the spokesperson for the Port of Montreal asserted that the port’s security team had confirmed the port operations were unaffected and there was no risk of a data breach.
Afterwards, a pro-Russian hacking group called NoName057(16) took responsibility for the cyberattack and asserted it would continue to target Canada. This cyber assault is only the latest of several cyber issues that global ports and maritime infrastructure have suffered recently.