While there is no evidence that any government site was hacked, the shutdown will be used to address a software flaw that could be used in a cyber attack.
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The Quebec government will shut down some 3,992 government websites as a preventive measure, Digital Transformation Minister Eric Caire announced on Sunday.
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At a press conference, he said the province was responding to the discovery of a vulnerability in the open source Apache Log4j package used by many websites and services.
The exploit, which was identified on Friday, would allow attackers to enter servers without permission and take control.
After commissioning an analysis of the threat this posed, Caire said the risk posed by an attack was found to outweigh the inconvenience of shutting down government sites.
Cyber defense teams, who have been working since Friday, review each site to determine if it has the flaw and either erase it to get back online or install a patch.
Critical systems will be scanned first, Caire said, adding that some sites, such as Quebec.ca, have already been repaired and brought back online.
All scans should be completed in a few days, he added.
“At present, we have no indication that we have been the target of a successful attack,” Caire said. “The decision is preventive, not reactive.”
Quebec’s vaccine passport system continues to operate because it does not use the library in question.
Reference-montrealgazette.com