Article content

The Hacker group Anonymous claimed responsibility Wednesday for what Treasury Board President Tony Clement says was a cyber attack on the Government of Canada’s computer servers. Some federal emails and several department websites crashed early Wednesday afternoon.

Federal cabinet ministers were being briefed about the matter, with sites for Justice, Public Works and Government Services, the main Canada.ca page, Shared Services Canada (the government’s super-IT department) and even the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) among some of those that were down.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Government of Canada websites under attack, hacker group Anonymous claims responsibility Back to video

“Confirmed today that Govt of Canada GC servers have been cyberattacked. Until full service is restored please use 1-800-OCanada,” Clement tweeted.

Government email access for some department and ministerial staff was also down, with political staffers handing out their personal email addresses to media.

A number of sites have since come back online as federal officials look to identify the source of the attack.

Internet hacker group Anonymous posted a YouTube video and statement Wednesday claiming responsibility for the attack. The video said it’s in response to the government’s anti-terrorism Bill C-51, which was recently passed in Parliament.

“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,” the group says.