Anonymous hack of federal government a warning, says Tom Keenan

The hacker collective Anonymous claimedresponsibility for anattack onfederal governmentwebsitesWednesday.

• 'Anonymous' says it cyberattacked federal government to protest Bill C-51
• U of C prof to talk at hacker haven Def Con

"It's always serious when a website is attacked, because it means somebody has taken power over you," saidTom Keenan, a professor at the University of Calgary and the author of Technocreep.

The collective Anonymous, as is its custom, posted a YouTube video saying the denial of service attackwhich floods a website with traffic to shut it downwas in response to the passage of Bill C-51. That cyber security bill has been heavily criticized for violating privacy and giving increased powers to Canada's spy agencies.

No personal information was stolen in the attack, and Keenansays it appears the group, if they are in fact responsible, was seeking attention.

"If Anonymousposted a YouTube video, as they did, who's going to look at it? A few people. If you take down all the Canadian government websites and call attention to it and everyone does news stories on it, you have a built-in audience for your YouTube video," he said.

Keenan says this is a wake-up call for those in charge of Canada's digital infrastructure and he imagines they're scrambling to shore up defences ahead of June 20,billed as a day of action in the Anonymous YouTube video.

'Anonymous' hacks Canadian government websites

9 years ago

Duration 2:54

Online hacker group says the cyberattack was protest over Ottawa's anti-terror Bill C-51