An attack that took the provincial government of Quebec's website offline for two days in April amid protests over university tuition increases may have been carried out by a government contractor.
Janvier Doyon-Tremblay, 28, was working for the federal House of Commons in Ottawa and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) when he allegedly managed to obtain administrative privileges and upload "malicious software" onto the provincial government's network.
He arrested last Friday and charged yesterday for "unauthorized use of computers" and mischief, Canada's National Post reported.
The attack began on April 27 as Anonymous attacked other Quebecois sites in support of the student protests, which concerned provincial tuition increases and subsequent attempts by the provincial legislature to quash the protests.
It's unclear, however, if Doyon-Tremblay was affiliated with the larger effort. The RCMP did not speculate as to what motivated him to commit the crime.
Doyon-Tremblay's LinkedIn page listed him as an IT analyst for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council in Ottawa, the National Post reported. Attempts to confirm whether he was still employed were unsuccessful.
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