The Canada Revenue Agency has temporarily halted efiling for taxpayers, following revelations that a major vulnerability impacts the data security of many online services and websites.
The “Hearbleed Bug,” a critical OpenSSL flaw that was recently discovered, is said to threaten the safety of online information, including payment card data, as exploiting the flaw would enable an attacker to steal the private cryptographic key of any secure server, according to experts.
On Wednesday, Canada's Minister of National Revenue Kerry-Lynne Findlay took to Twitter to tell citizens that interest and penalties wouldn't be applied to those filing their returns after the normal, April 30 cutoff day. Findlay added that the extension was good for the length of time the security issue caused "service disruption."
