The Canada Revenue Agency(CRA) is reported that all of its online services are back into service after being down since Friday afternoon due to an internet vulnerability which was discovered during the website maintenance.
In an update which was posted on the CRA website, the agency said that as of 5 p.m. on Sunday, individuals and businesses have been able to file their tax returns electronically, make payments and also access all other digital services.
The statement released by CRA said that, the CRA acted quickly to temporarily take down all our online services, including the electronic filing, and put in place the necessary maintenance security patches to ensure that all the information and systems remained safe.
"We took this action as a precaution, not as the result of a successful hack or breach."
The agency said that the tax returns which had already been filed were processed normally, while the services were down and that Canadians should not expect a delay in getting their tax refund.
The CRA first took its website down as a precaution at the midnight on March 10.
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CRA also said that it has worked around the clock over the past two days with other government departments to address the issue.
The affected services included My Account, My Business Account, Represent a Client, the MyCRA mobile application, the MyBenefits mobile application, Netfile, EFILE and also Auto-Fill My Return.
The Statistics Canada also took its website offline, although a spokesperson in a statement said that the systems used to conduct surveys were separate and not affected by the outage.
The agency said that the issue would not affect the distribution of its daily morning statistical release, which is also available through the social media and to email subscribers.
Alain Belle-Isle, spokesperson with the Treasury Board of Canada, said in a statement to CBC News that the necessary fixes to the issue were applied and tested before the affected sites were brought back to online.
He also said that, the government of Canada takes the privacy of Canadians very seriously and ensuring the security of Canadians personal information is our priority.
Mrudula Duddempudi.
