By Tyler Renaud [1]
BELLEVILLE – The cenotaph in Peterborough was outfitted with a Guy Fawkes mask and signs protesting Bill C-51 early Wednesday morning.
The Peterborough Examiner [2] reported earlier today that a group of activists have claimed responsibility. Peterborough police told QNet News on Wednesday morning they will not be commenting on the matter.
The Peterborough cenotaph is a memorial dedicated to city residents who died in war.
The mask found on the cenotaph is a universal sign for Anonymous, a “hacktivist” group.
Anonymous uses “distributed denial-of-service” (DDoS) attacks to make computer networks belonging to their targets unavailable to users. A DDoS attack is when an attacker tries to overload a server by saturating it with external communications requests. This normally results in a total shutdown of the server, crashing the targeted website.
The group has carried out attacks on various websites including those belonging to Sony [3], U.S Department of Defense [4], the Church of Scientology [5] and various electronic payment [6]sites for their condemning of WikiLeaks [7].
Guy Fawkes originally created the mask’s design for a failed plot in which he and his followers famously tried to destroy the House of Lords [8] in London, England in the 17th century. In the modern day, it has been worn by members of Anonymous.