JOIN USA Canadian government employee has been charged with hacking into the Quebec government's main website last spring.
Janvier Doyon-Tremblay, 28, an information technology analyst with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, a Canadian government agency, faces two Criminal Code counts of unauthorized use of computers and one count of mischief in relation to data, reported Xinhua.
He is to appear in court here Nov 26.
In a news release, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Thursday that Doyon-Tremblay "is believed to have performed a series of attacks" on the Quebec government's main website April 27, 2012, and left it disabled for two days.
At the time of the alleged attack, he worked under contract as a business applications support officer at the Canadian parliament and as a LAN administrator for the RCMP.
Canada's national police force said that while working at the House of Commons, Doyon-Tremblay hacked into the Quebec government's network, "gained administrative privileges" and proceeded to upload "a malicious program which would have targeted the government of Quebec's main website" and rendered it inaccessible to the public.
The RCMP's Integrated Technological Crime Unit arrested the man last Friday.
On Wednesday, Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews announced a five-year, 155 million Canadian dollars ($157 million) strategy to protect the country against electronic threats, hacking and "cyber-espionage".