OTTAWA — In response to the significant number of Covid-19-related scams and cyber attacks that have occurred in recent weeks, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) issued a statement Tuesday to address the issue and to provide information on how to report malicious activity.
“Over the past few weeks, cybersecurity analysts have observed a significant uptick in cyber attacks and disinformation exploiting peoples’ concerns over the spread of Covid-19,” reads the CIRA statement.
In many cases, malicious actors have leveraged the global domain name system, including the .CA domain, to deceive or harm Internet users, CIRA says.
“As the stewards of Canada’s .CA domain, CIRA takes our role in ensuring the safe, stable and trusted operation of our network very seriously. At no time is this more true than during a global public health crisis like the one we are all experiencing,” CIRA says.
CIRA is currently investigating all Covid-19 or coronavirus-related .CA domain registrations to confirm they are compliant with CIRA’s Canadian presence requirements, the statement says. In addition, CIRA is working with its registrar, cybersecurity, government and global ccTLD (country code top-level domain) partners to monitor the situation closely.
CIRA is asking anyone who sees a domain being used to facilitate cyber attacks, such as phishing, malware, ransomware, fraud or disinformation, to report the activity to the following organizations:
In the meantime, CIRA says it is reviewing its policies and processes to help curb the spread of Covid-19-related cyber attacks and it plans to share relevant updates as soon as possible.
