Canada's foreign affairs department hit by data breach

FILE PHOTO: A computer keyboard lit by a displayed cyber code is seen in this illustration picture taken on March 1, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian government said on Tuesday that its global affairs department suffered a data breach and that there was unauthorized access to personal information of users including employees.

Global Affairs Canada (GAC), in a statement, said it activated an unplanned IT outage on Jan. 24 to "address the discovery of malicious cyber activity."