Anonymous, the online hacker group, is claiming responsibility for a cyber-attack today on the Canadian government’s websites in retaliation for the passing of Bill C-51, the so-called anti-terror bill.
“Today, Anons around the world took a stand for your rights”
“Today, Anons around the world took a stand for your rights” the group wrote in an online post this afternoon. “Do we trade our privacy for security? Do we bow down and obey what has become totalitarian rule? Don’t fool [yourselves]. The Harper regime does not listen to the people, it acts only in [its] best interests.”
Tony Clement, Treasury Board President, confirmed to CBC News that the government’s servers were hit, with a denial of service attack.
“I can tell you, I’ve just been through a briefing on it. There has been an attack on government of Canada servers, GC servers. It is as a result of a — what we would call a cyberattack,” he said
Several federal government websites appear to be back online after the brief blackout, including websites for the Justice Department and Canada’s spy agencies, CSEC and CSIS.
It is not clear, however, whether the attack is over, as some government websites appear to be flashing on and offline intermittently.
Government employees have also reportedly had problems accessing email.
Tony Clement urged users to call 1-800-OCanada for help until full service is restored, When someone from CBC News dialed the number, the operator was unaware of the interruption.
“Public Safety and of course Shared Services Canada are working to restore service,” said Clement. “But in the meantime, we’re working very diligently to restore services as soon as possible and to find out the origination of the attack.”
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