Federal government websites were hit by a cyberattack Wednesday and the hacking group Anonymous has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The websites for several federal departments -- including Weather.gc.ca, ServiceCanada.gc.ca and Parl.gc.ca -- went down around the lunch hour ET Wednesday.
Many federal employees also lost email service. Some sites, such as National Defence, remained online.
The sites appeared to go back online shortly before 3 p.m. ET.
Treasury Board President Tony Clement confirmed to reporters on Parliament Hill Wednesday afternoon that the shutdowns were caused by a denial of service cyberattack.
“I’ve just been through a briefing on it,”Clement said. “There has been an attack on Government of Canada servers.”
“We are working very diligently to restore services and to find out the origination of the attack,” he added.
“If Canadians have any issues and are being denied access to a GC account, they should phone 1-800-O-Canada,” Clement advised.
Clement could not say whether any data had been stolen or who might have directed the attack.
‘Anonymous’ video
A video released on YouTube claiming to be from the global hacking group Anonymous took responsibility for the attack. The video has not been independently verified by CTV News.
“We launched an attack against Canadian Senate and Government of Canada websites in protest against the recent passing of Bill C-51,” says the video’s narrator, whose voice has been disguised.
“(C-51) 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.”
The narrator criticizes Prime Minister Stephen Harper, calls for “revolution” and asks Canadians to “take to the streets and protest” on Saturday.
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