{"id":651,"date":"2026-10-22T14:32:01","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T14:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/22\/statistics-canada-website-down-as-internet-hit-by-millions-of-hack-attempts-national-globalnews-ca\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T14:32:01","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T14:32:01","slug":"statistics-canada-website-down-as-internet-hit-by-millions-of-hack-attempts-national-globalnews-ca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/22\/statistics-canada-website-down-as-internet-hit-by-millions-of-hack-attempts-national-globalnews-ca\/","title":{"rendered":"Statistics Canada website down as internet hit by millions of hack attempts – National | Globalnews.ca"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Several government websites, including Statistics Canada, were still down Thursday morning at the same time a coding vulnerability seen worldwide<\/a> has opened the door to millions of reported hack attempts.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re sorry! The website is currently unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience,\u201d a bulletin on Statistics Canada\u2019s website said as of publication.<\/p>\n

That comes after other outages including the website for the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, which handles trademark and copyright information, was also taken offline on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon<\/a> said Wednesday in a social media post that websites went dark to protect government systems and Canadians\u2019 information following guidance from the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security.<\/p>\n

He said it is being done in response to a vulnerability identified in PHP, a widely used programming language that underwrites roughly 70 per cent of the world\u2019s websites.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is a global issue, and other governments and organizations are also taking protective measures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Some Government of Canada websites have been temporarily taken offline as a precaution to protect government systems and Canadians’ information, following guidance from the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security.<\/p>\n

This is in response to a vulnerability identified in PHP, software\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Evan Solomon (@EvanLSolomon) October 21, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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The British Columbia government posted Wednesday on social media that it had taken some of its webpages offline \u201cas a precaution following a new global cybersecurity vulnerability.\u201d<\/p>\n

The B.C. government said teams were working to restore services as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

PHP developers released urgent fixes on Wednesday for vulnerabilities that had lurked in the software for years until they were uncovered using AI, urging users to \u201cupdate immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDetails of these flaws became public before fixes were ready, and attacks have since been reported,\u201d said Madeline Lawrence, co-founder of Belgian cybersecurity firm Aikido Security speaking to Reuters.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSo companies are racing to update against attackers who can use AI to exploit them. That\u2019s the whole race.\u201d<\/p>\n

As companies and governments deployed patches and suspended websites as a precaution, hacking attempts surged into the millions, according to cloud services firm Cloudflare NET.N.<\/p>\n

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