‘Anonymous’ says it cyberattacked federal government to protest Bill C-51
Around 1:30 pm ET on Tuesday afternoon, Canadian government websites became inaccessible due to a denial-of-service attack, The Globe and Mail reported. The attack affected industry, employment, national resources, fisheries and oceans, justice, labor, foreign affaisr, environment and transportation related websites.
A denial-of-service attack, sometimes called a DOS attack, occurs when hackers flood a website with traffic, essentially leaving it unusable to normal users hoping to browse the site.
Some websites back online, but users urged to call 1-800-OCanada until full service returns
The online hacker group Anonymous has claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on federal government websites, in protest against the recent passing of the government’s anti-terror Bill C-51.
“Today, Anons around the world took a stand for your rights,” the group wrote Wednesday afternoon in an online post
“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.”
A number of federal government websites appear to be back online after the brief blackout, including websites for the Senate, the Justice Department and Canada’s spy agencies, CSEC and CSIS.
However, it’s unclear whether the attacks have stopped, as government websites seem to be flashing on and offline intermittently.
Government employees have also reportedly had problems accessing email.
Denial of service attack
Treasury Board President Tony Clement 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.
He urged users to call 1-800-OCanada for help until full service is restored.
When CBC News phoned this number, the service 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.”
A CBC News query to Shared Services Canada was not immediately answered.
Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/anonymous-says-it-cyberattacked-federal-government-to-protest-bill-c-51-1.3117360
