Indian Hacker Group Claims Responsibility For Cyberattack On Canadian Armed Forces

The official website of the Canadian Armed Forces faced a brief disruption on Wednesday, and raised concerns about cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

According to reports from The Telegraph, the website fell victim to a cyberattack allegedly organished by a group of hackers identifying themselves as the ‘Indian Cyber Force.’ This group had previously claimed responsibility for an attack on X (formerly known as Twitter).

The disruption began in the afternoon but was promptly addressed and resolved. Daniel Le Bouthillier, the head of media relations at the Department of National Defence, confirmed these developments to ‘The Globe and Mail’.

Neglience by IT administrators

As per The Globe and Mail’s reports, Canada’s intelligence agency issued a warning to information and technology administrators just last week, urging them to remain vigilant due to the rising number of cyberattacks. The report noted, “CSE and its Canadian Centre for Cyber Security have observed that geopolitical events often lead to an uptick in disruptive cyber campaigns.”

During the disruption, desktop users experienced partial access to the website, while the majority of mobile users were unable to reach it.

The Indian Cyber Force made their attack on the Canadian Air Force Website public by sharing a screenshot of the error message displayed on the Canadian website via their platform X.

In a post on X, the Indian Cyber Force announced, “Canadian Airforce Website has been taken down” and shared a screenshot of the error message displayed during the attack.

Canadian Airforce Website has been taken down 🔥

>Target – https://t.co/nNzSz3kAHr

>Check host – https://t.co/nH67OaEhMY

Duration: 2 hour#Fuckcanada pic.twitter.com/khfhVQAV2R

— Indian Cyber Force (@CyberForceX) September 27, 2023

Before this incident, the Indian Cyber Force had issued threats against Canada on September 21 through social media, warning of cyberattacks on Canadian cyberspace.

Hackers backfires Anti-India policies of Canada

On September 22, the group expressed its discontent with the Canadian government’s allegations against India and its anti-India policies.

It’s worth noting that this cyberattack occurred amidst an ongoing diplomatic standoff between India and Canada. Tensions escalated further after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made allegations against India in connection with the death of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

India responded to these allegations with a strong statement, categorizing them as “absurd.” India also called on Canada to take decisive action against terrorists and anti-India elements operating within its borders and temporarily suspended visa services for Canadian citizens.