A denial of service attack has crippled the websites of Prince Edward Island.
“This website – PrinceEdwardIsland.ca – is temporarily unavailable,” the site said Thursday afternoon Eastern time. “We are working to fix the problem as quickly as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
CBC News says it was told the cause is a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.
“There was no data compromised by this cyberattack,” the province told the public broadcaster in an email. “This type of cyberattack is not unique, as other jurisdictions in Canada have experienced similar attacks recently.”
Under a DDoS attack, hundreds or more infected computers, servers and tablets are ordered to fire packets at a website. The goal may be to embarrass the owner of the site for political or other reasons, disrupt or extort a business, or distract the IT response team while a cyber intrusion is being made elsewhere.
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In April, a pro-Russian threat group was believed to be behind a DDoS attack that temporarily blocked access to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s official website on the same day he met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.