NoName057(16) claimed the cyberattack on Canadian airports

NoName057(16), a pro-Russia hacking group, admitted that they were the ones who compromised the Canadian airports. However, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) revealed that the cyberattack has caused widespread service disruptions resulting from a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. This type of cyberattack results from a flooded system with junk traffic, rendering them inoperative.

Fortunately, CBSA acted immediately and restored all systems within a few hours, minimising the impact on travellers. During the outage, the Montreal Airport Authority (ADM) reported significant delays in arrivals processing for over an hour at border checkpoints nationwide, including the bustling Montreal-Trudeau International Airport.

CBSA responded by notifying everyone that the attack had not compromised any personal information and offered free advice about the concerns about the data breaches.

 

The NoName057(16) hacking group has also claimed responsibility for various attacks against Canadian industries.

 

The cybersecurity concerns escalated when the NoName057(16) hacking group claimed responsibility for the attacks against the aviation industry. Reports stated they have targeted several prominent Canadian organisations, such as CBSA, the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, and various government and financial institutions.

The government-owned cybersecurity agency warned local tech professionals and managers about ongoing distributed denial-of-service campaigns that target the Canadian government, financial sector, and transportation industry.

Some Canadian organisations have suffered widespread interruptions because of the notorious Russian state-sponsored cyber threat actors, including NoName057(16).

On the other hand, the CBSA decided not to attribute the attack to NoName057(16) since they are investigating the attack and have yet to confirm the validity of the Russian hacking group’s claims.

The agency has yet to explain how the DDoS operation breached the supposed closed-circuit computer system used by airport check-in kiosks. This detail implies that the threat actors have upgraded their capabilities and sophistication.

The Canadian authorities will continue to investigate these cyberattacks against multiple industries, especially in the aviation sector. Therefore, Canadians and those visiting the country should be vigilant about these digital threats since they could disrupt daily life and operations.