Skip to main content

Governor General's office says internal network breached

Share
OTTAWA -

The Office of the Secretary to Gov. Gen. Mary Simon says that there’s been an ‘unauthorized access to its internal network,’ with the scope of the breach still under investigation.

According to a statement issued Thursday morning, the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General (OSGG) is working with the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security on the investigation and “took immediate action to strengthen its network.”

“The OSGG is continuing its work with experts and pursuing further network improvements as needed,” the statement said.

Ian McCowan is Simon’s secretary, coming into the role in February 2021 after being the deputy secretary to the cabinet at the Privy Council Office (PCO).

The OSGG has also spoken with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner about the breach, vowing protecting the personal information of those who work and interact with the office is “a priority.”

In a separate statement, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) and the Cyber Centre confirmed they are looking into the “recent cyber incident” but did not comment on any details such as the scope of the breach or when it was discovered.

“We are working closely with OSGG to ensure there are robust systems and tools in place to monitor, detect, and investigate potential threats, and to neutralize threats when they occur,” said the statement. “Cyber threats can result from system or application vulnerabilities, or from deliberate, persistent and targeted attacks by outside actors to gain access to information.”

IN DEPTH

Who is supporting, opposing new online harms bill?

Now that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's sweeping online harms legislation is before Parliament, allowing key stakeholders, major platforms, and Canadians with direct personal experience with abuse to dig in and see what's being proposed, reaction is streaming in. CTVNews.ca has rounded up reaction, and here's how Bill C-63 is going over.

Opinion

opinion

opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike

When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.

opinion

opinion Don Martin: ArriveCan debacle may be even worse than we know from auditor's report

It's been 22 years since a former auditor general blasted the Chretien government after it 'broke just about every rule in the book' in handing out private sector contracts in the sponsorship scandal. In his column for CTVNews.ca, Don Martin says the book has been broken anew with everything that went on behind the scenes of the 'dreaded' ArriveCan app.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

Local Spotlight

N.B. man wins $64 million from Lotto 6/49

A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.

Record-setting pop tab collection for Ontario boy

It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.

Stay Connected