(Ottawa) Météomédia and its English-speaking arm, The Weather Network, still can’t send weather alerts from their app following a “malicious cyberattack,” but the En Alerte system is functional if necessary.
The system that sends emergency notifications to cell phones when dangerous weather conditions are imminent is working, assured Pelmorex, the parent company of the two weather services.
The September 11 attack affected at least some services and both websites still do not provide complete weather data four days later.
The sites have restored current temperature and forecast data, but other information, such as current sunny, cloudy, or rainy weather, is still not displayed.
Karen Kheder, Pelmorex’s communications director, says the attack also prevents the company from sending its own weather alerts through notifications to app users.
However, she maintains that the Alert system, which Pelmorex manages for the federal and provincial governments, uses a separate technological infrastructure and that alerts can be sent without problems.
On Alert issues emergency warnings to mobile phones, as well as radio and television stations, when a tornado or major thunderstorm is imminent.
“Pelmorex is working around the clock to restore our services to Canadians after suffering a recent malicious cyberattack,” Kheder said in a written statement sent to The Canadian Press.
“This cyberattack only affected the weather data systems of MétéoMédia and The Weather Network. Some services are already operational and Canadians can also expect a gradual restoration of more weather services and information. »
Pelmorex said earlier this week that the attack was a “cybersecurity incident linked to a third-party software vendor,” but did not provide further explanation about it, including the name of that vendor or the type of ‘attack.
Pelmorex says it alerted the relevant authorities about the attack.
A statement released Thursday by the office of Civil Protection Minister Harjit Sajjan said the government was aware of the cybersecurity attack and that En Alerte was not affected.
“Pelmorex confirms that On Alert’s capabilities are currently unaffected and continue to operate as expected,” the statement said.
Several other Canadian companies and government organizations have been affected by cyberattacks in recent years.
In February, book retailer Indigo was hit by an attack that cost it millions of dollars in lost sales because it was unable to process debit and credit card transactions for several days and did not couldn’t sell anything on his website for weeks.
In April, Russian hackers claimed responsibility for launching an attack on a number of Canadian organizations, including the Prime Minister’s Office, the Port of Halifax and Pearson International Airport.
In 2021, Rideau Hall was hit by a “sophisticated cyber incident” that allowed someone to gain unauthorized access to Rideau Hall’s internal computer systems.
Last month, a report released by the Canadian Center for Cyber Security warned that organized cybercrime, primarily from Russia and to a lesser extent from Iran, “would very likely pose a threat to the national security and economic prosperity of the Canada over the next two years.”
