The government websites in Quebec were subjected to a cyber attack of Russian origin from Tuesday night to Wednesday, temporarily making them unavailable.

According to Eric Caire, the Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital Affairs, the following websites were targeted:

Treasury Board Secretariat

Financial Markets Authority

Local Infrastructure Financing Authority

Ministry of Economy

Ministry of Economic Development, Innovation, and Exports

Quebec Securities and Investment Authority

Some websites are now operational again. Other sites may also be targeted. The cyber attack is still under investigation.

According to Minister Caire, the Russian group operating under the name NoName is behind the attack.

In a press release issued Wednesday afternoon, his ministry clarified that this type of cyber attacks consists of overloading the site by doubling the connection request, which may temporarily render some government websites unavailable.

The minister commented: "We conducted checks, examined the logs, and reviewed all our systems to ensure there was no breach aimed at stealing data from the Government of Quebec, and that is not the case."

Also, the representative for Fabre and the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital Affairs, Alice Abu Khalil, responded Wednesday afternoon in a statement sent via email to Radio Canada. She confirmed that the research conducted by the Government Cyber Defense Center (CGCD) on the secure network concluded that the attack was of Russian origin.

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According to cybersecurity specialist Steve Waterhouse, these attacks on about ten government websites are the work of the Russian-speaking hacking group NoName057.

Their goal is to create a bit of chaos by preventing users from accessing the sites.

"They take a set of infected computers, what we call a botnet, and based on the command, they send millions of requests to sites, very specific targets," explained the cybersecurity expert.

"They have conducted such campaigns around the world, and two days ago, it was in Germany, and now, today, they are returning to Canada for the sixth time, but this time, they are leaving sites with financial implications in addition to the Senate," added Steve Waterhouse.

According to him, the group uses a communication channel on Telegram, and on Wednesday morning, they showed they intended to carry out attacks of this kind.

Also, during his afternoon press conference, Minister Caire did not clarify whether the government believed that the group NoName057 was behind the attack.