Military contractor’s website has been hacked

Initial indications reveal that no information was stolen, Valcom says

OTTAWA— A contracting company that does millions of dollars in business with Canada’s federal government and military agencies has been hacked, the Star has learned. Valcom Consulting confirmed Thursday morning that its website was recently defaced, and officials said they’re conducting an internal investigation into the incident.

The initial indication is no information was compromised or stolen by the hacker or hackers, said Lyle Best, a sales manager with the company. But Best said it was too early to confirm that.

“I don’t know if it’s a cyberattack or a hack or whatever else at this time,” Best told the Star Thursday morning.

“We’re still looking at it, so I mean I can’t really comment because they’re still looking at it and they’ll tell me what the results are later on.”

A screenshot of Valcom’s website sent to the Star late Wednesday night shows the hack attributed to “MuhmadEmad,” a hacker that reportedly defaced hundreds of thousands of WordPress websites in February. The “hacked by MuhmadEmad” campaign used a vulnerability in the WordPress platform to post antiDaesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, messages in support of the Kurdish Peshmerga fighting the terror group.

According to security company WordFence, the campaign targeted a wide range of websites in the United States and the U.K. Other reports indicate Irish and Japanese websites were also defaced.

The company traced the IP address used in many of the hackers’ attacks to Montreal — although the hacker could be hiding their actual location.

Given the wide variety of websites hit by the hacks, it’s unlikely that Valcom was targeted for its contracts with the federal government and Canadian military.

Over the last decade, Valcom has received government contracts worth millions, including hundreds of contracts with the Department of National Defence, according to public procurement records analyzed by the Star.

A government official told the Star that it’s unlikely Valcom would have sensitive information stored on their servers, even if the hack did more than just deface the company’s site.

Daniel Lebouthillier, a spokesperson for the Department of National Defence, said that while the department doesn’t have “cause for concern” about the incident, they are “tracking this issue closely.”