The Canada Revenue Agency has been forced to shut down its online services after discovering they were potentially vulnerable to a security breach. Sections of the federal agency’s website, including those that allow residents to file their taxes online, were taken down around 1 p.m. Friday. As of press time Saturday evening, they remained offline. A notice posted to the website soon after the shutdown said the features had been suspended because of “system maintenance.” But a second message posted Saturday afternoon revealed that the CRA had discovered “an Internet vulnerability.” The statement suggested the problem wasn’t unique to the agency and “affects some computer servers used by websites worldwide.”“Ensuring that Canadians’ personal information is not compromised is a priority for us and we are working to bring our online services back up as soon as possible,” CRA spokesperson David Walters told the Star in an email. He said the online services had been removed “out of an abundance of caution” and not because of a “successful hack or breach.” He stated that the agency was “not aware of any unauthorized access to taxpayer information.”

Source: thestar March 12, 2017 02:17 UTC