Last updated: Feb. 3, 2021
The CRA has temporarily shut down its online services after thousands of accounts were compromised by cyberattacks.
The attacks targeted the CRA and GCKEY, an online portal where Canadians can access services such as employment insurance and veterans’ benefits.
The Canadian government says the attacks were a form of “credential stuffing.”
“These attacks, which used passwords and usernames collected from previous hacks of accounts worldwide, took advantage of the fact that many people reuse passwords and usernames across multiple accounts,” said the Treasury Board’s Office of the Chief Information Officer in a statement.
About 5,500 CRA accounts were targeted in these attacks.
“Access to all affected accounts has been disabled to maintain the safety and security of taxpayers’ information and the Agency is contacting all affected individuals and will work with them to restore access to their CRA MyAccount,” the statement said.
The government has disabled access to My Account and Represent a Client on the CRA website as an additional safety measure.
My Business Account is available so employers can apply for the most recent round of the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy.
The government and RCMP are investigating to determine if there have been any privacy breaches and if information was obtained from these accounts.
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