WASHINGTON, August 14 — The Canadian Parliament's lower chamber, the House of Commons, fell victim to "significant" data breach of employee information following a cyberattack, reported Sputnik/RIA Novosti, quoting a CBC report on Thursday.
The House of Commons (HoC) alerted staff on Monday about an information breach that happened on Friday, the report said, citing an internal email it had obtained.
Canada's cybersecurity services are investigating the data breach that was caused by an "unknown threat actor".
Accordingly, a malicious actor was able to gain access to a database used to manage computers and mobile devices. This was made possible after the attackers successfully exploited a recent Microsoft vulnerability.
The leaked information includes data unavailable to the public, such as names, job titles, office locations and email addresses. The report added that the actors also accessed information on the HoC-managed computers and mobile devices.
In late July, Microsoft accused hacker groups Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon, allegedly linked to the Chinese government, of exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft's SharePoint application. News outlets reported that the cyberattacks targeted the United States, Germany, France, and Australia.