For several hours today, websites operated by the Government of Canada were inaccessible.
According to Treasury Board President Tony Clement, it’s because the federal govenrment suffered a denial of service attack.
“Confirmed today that Govt of Canada GC servers have been cyberattacked,” said Clement in a post on Twitter. “Until full service is restored please use 1-800-OCanada.”
The issue has since been resolved and both government website and emails accounts are working once again.
Hackavist group Anonymous is taking credit for the attacks. In a video it posted to Youtube, the group says the attacks are in response to Bill C-51, the controversial anti-terror legislation that parliament recently passed.
“Greetings citizens of Canada, we are Anonymous. Today, this 17th of June 2015, we launched an attack against the Canadian senate and government of Canada websites in protest against the recent passing of bill C-51,” says the description that accompanies the group’s Youtube video. “A bill which is a clear violation of the universal declaration of human rights, as well as removing our legal protections that have stood, enshrined in the Magna Carta for 800 years.”
Image via Flickr user Mark Drewe.
[source]Twitter[/source][via]Globe and Mail[/via]
