What happened. On October 21, the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security issued an alert about two critical vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language used by a very large number of websites. The flaws could let an attacker run commands on a server without a password. Fixes are available. In its statement the same day, the Centre warned that some websites may be temporarily unavailable while those fixes are installed.
Who shut their website. That same day, the SAQ, the SAAQ and the STM took their websites offline as a precaution (in French), according to Radio-Canada; CTV News also reported the STM and SAQ outages. The SAAQ said its checks had found no compromise so far. The City of Montreal also took several of its websites offline and says it will bring them back gradually, one site at a time, with no date given. The Société des traversiers du Québec (the provincial ferry operator) suspended its online reservations and alerts.
Where things stand on October 23. We checked each site on October 23 around 9 a.m.:
- SAQ: the website works again.
- SAAQ: the website works again.
- STM: the old site redirects to the beta version of the new site, which has schedules, the trip planner and service status. According to Radio-Canada, the mobile trip-planning apps, paratransit booking and the shared-taxi site stayed up. Note: an old link to a specific page of the site, such as a bookmark, may lead to an error page; start again from the home page.
- City of Montreal: the home page still shows a "sites under maintenance" notice. Some City sites may still be closed.
- Ferries: online reservations and alerts are still unavailable. According to Radio-Canada (in French), crossings are running as planned; in Matane, you book by phone at 1-833-677-5039.
The situation changes by the hour. If a site doesn't respond, try again later rather than searching for another address.
Good to know for newcomers. A preventive shutdown means the door was closed to fix the lock, not that someone got in. If something is urgent, the phone still works: the SAAQ answers at 1-800-361-7620, and the City of Montreal at 311 (514-872-0311 from outside Montreal), as shown on its Contact us page. If you get an email or text message about this outage asking for your information or a payment, don't click: type the official website's address yourself. Our guide to common scams in Quebec shows the warning signs.
