The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is currently testing a patch for the Heartbleed Bug, but for now its online services remain out of commission.
In its daily progress report on the effort to remediate the security flaw that has been uncovered in a widely-used form of online encryption, the agency says that it’s still working to resolve the issue with its site. For now though, taxpayers are prevented from using services such as EFILE and NETFILE to submit their latest tax returns.
Yesterday, the CRA indicated that it hopes to restore service on the weekend. Today, it reported that it’s currently implementing a patch for the bug, and “are vigorously testing all systems to ensure they will be safe and secure once the site is re-launched.”
The CRA didn’t provide any update on when it expects to restore service, noting that taxpayers will get a grace period on the April 30 tax filing deadline that is equal to the length of the disruption.
The agency says that Minister of National Revenue, Kerry-Lynne Findlay, has confirmed that “interest and penalties will not be applied to individual taxpayers filing their 2013 tax returns after April 30, 2014 for a period equal to the length of this service interruption.”