Examples of Electronic Attacks

• In January 2003, the "Slammer" worm interfered with global Internet-based operations, including those in Canada. "Slammer" disrupted normal international banking operations, caused airline flights to be delayed, affected the operations of one 911 emergency centre in Washington State and disabled a safety monitoring system at an Ohio nuclear plant for several hours. "Slammer" also demonstrated the degree to which the degradation of the operation of overlapping and interconnected electronic networks could affect the financial sector, both domestically and internationally.
• In mid-August 2003, the "Blaster" worm began to infect systems around the world. It contained a code that would cause infected machines to target specific systems. Prior knowledge of the planned attack and subsequent preventive measures and strategies undertaken by public and private sector entities prevented "Blaster" from significantly disrupting the operation of the Internet. In Canada, "Blaster" and its derivatives, which were well-publicized by the media, still managed to affect portions of Canadian industry and government institutions.
• In January 2004, a new virus, "MYDOOM," quickly became the most prolific mass e-mailing worm to date, infecting some 600,000 computers and causing the global network to slow by eight to ten per cent. "MYDOOM" clogged the Internet with more than 100 million infected e-mails in its first 36 hours. On January 28, one in three e-mails in Europe was infected.

The following events, while not the result of cyber-related attacks, demonstrate cyber-related vulnerabilities resulting from the interdependence among critical infrastructure sectors:

• On August 28, 2003, up to a half million commuters were trapped after a power blackout paralyzed London, United Kingdom. Trains, subways and traffic lights were not functioning, thus creating traffic chaos. In addition, it is estimated that the city's economy suffered significantly.
• On September 23, 2003, a similar electrical blackout in Denmark affected approximately four million people. Affected critical infrastructure sectors included surface and underground railways, the Copenhagen airport, and the Oeresund bridge and tunnel, which link the capital to Sweden. Many hospitals switched to emergency generators.
• On September 28, 2003, a power outage affected all of Italy with the exception of the island of Sardinia. The outage lasted several hours and crippled the country's critical infrastructure which serves 50 million people.

For a list of current cyber-related threats and vulnerabilities visit the Public Safety Canada Web site.