Hackers bring down government, police sites
Attacks will continue until Bill 78 goes: Anonymous
MONTREAL — “Government Quebec, you have been warned.”
The unmasked threat was part of an Anonymous video on the weekend, just as the international hackers’ collective brought down 13 Quebec government and police websites.
On Wednesday, websites for the Quebec public safety ministry, the Liberal Party of Quebec, the Quebec coroner’s office and the Quebec police ethics commission remained out of order, or “under maintenance.”
This, in retaliation for the government opting to “assassinate the right to protest by adopting an emergency law to try and stifle protests against the tuition hikes.”
According to Commander X, one of the least anonymous Anons and an important organizer of its operations, the group has been discussing for two weeks whether to get involved in the situation in Quebec, as it did in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere last year.
“The passing of ‘ Special Law 78’ has merely added a sense of urgency and forced us to take immediate action,” said Commander X, whose real name is Christopher Doyon.
Bill 78 makes it illegal to assemble, protest or picket outside universities and colleges, or anywhere in Quebec with more than 50 people without prior police approval.
The denial- of- service attacks launched Saturday also targeted the
of Montreal police and other government sites.
The Education Department took its website offline — so hacktivists couldn’t.
Doyon estimated some 300 to 500 individuals around the world participated in these latest attacks on Quebec websites by flooding the websites with requests so they could no longer respond. “Even some folks from Anonymous Bahrain” took part, he said.
In an interview Saturday, Quebec Public Security Minister Robert Dutil said his department was taking the attacks seriously: “We have to find a way to stop the hackers.”
Doyon said the attacks will continue, however, until the “draconian Special Law 78 is repealed or overturned in court.” Until then, he said, Anonymous will step up the pressure.
“The next phase … will involve more advanced hacks of police and government websites, such as defacements and data dumps,” Doyon said, “combined with the dissemination of high- impact media such as videos and posters.”
Other groups are also turning to the Internet to protest.
Arretezmoiquelquun.com — Someone arrest me — was launched on Monday and features more than 4,000 people who uploaded their photos with signs that say “I disobey Bill 78” or some less polite wording to that effect.