Canada’s Communications Security Establishment (CSE) is once again warning the public to remain cautious and vigilant in the face of cyber attacks as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits the country and delivers a speech to Parliament on Friday.

President Zelenskyy arrived in Canada on Thursday, marking his first visit since 2019. This visit is particularly significant, as it is his second time addressing the Canadian Parliament since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The CSE has observed a trend of increased distributed denial of service (DDoS) campaigns against NATO countries that support Ukraine or host visits from Ukrainian government officials.

In light of these observations, the CSE is urging website operators to adopt a heightened state of vigilance and enhance their awareness and protection against malicious cyber threats. As Canada’s signals intelligence agency, the CSE is responsible for safeguarding Canadian government networks. It also works closely with the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security and partners in the private sector to detect and monitor potential cyber threats, including critical infrastructure.

During the month of September, several Canadian government websites became targets of cyberattacks. The websites for Yukon, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, and Nunavut were all forced to shut down on September 14. Both P.E.I. and Yukon attributed these outages to cyberattacks. Additionally, the Quebec government reported a cyberattack by a pro-Russian hacker group named NoName. In these instances, hackers used the denial-of-service tactic, overwhelming the target website with an excessive number of requests and causing it to crash.

This is not the first time the CSE has raised concerns about cyber threats. In June, the agency revealed that the federal government faces cyberattacks by hostile foreign actors on an hourly basis. Sami Khoury of the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, which is part of the CSE, explained that while ongoing protection measures are in place, the agency also collaborates with corporations to ensure comprehensive cybersecurity. Khoury noted that Russia and Russian-aligned hackers are intensifying their efforts to disrupt critical infrastructure. The CSE blocks billions of signals daily, utilizing automated systems to detect vulnerabilities. However, incidents in the private sector continue to occur.

The CSE’s warning in June coincided with a threat assessment that Russian-aligned hackers might attempt to disrupt Canada’s oil and natural gas sector, especially considering Canada’s strong support for Ukraine. The assessment highlighted Russia’s previous deployment of destructive cyberattacks against adversaries during geopolitical crises and predicted that such attacks would persist. It cautioned that Canada’s oil and gas infrastructure is vulnerable to attacks and that an attack on U.S. assets could also impact Canada due to cross-border integration. The assessment concluded that the likely intent of such activities is to disrupt critical services, psychologically impact Canadians, and weaken support for Ukraine.

It is crucial for individuals and organizations to take the CSE’s warnings seriously and remain vigilant against cyber threats. By adopting a heightened state of awareness and enhancing protective measures, Canadians can help safeguard their digital environments and infrastructure from malicious actors seeking to disrupt critical services and exploit vulnerabilities.