Anonymous also threatens the Montreal Grand Prix
It is written that 2012 will not be a year like the others in F1. After the controversy surrounding the Bahrain Grand Prix, it is now the much more popular Montreal event that is threatened by protesters. After the angry students, the hacker group Anonymous is now threatening to disrupt the event.
For the global hacker group, this wouldn’t be a first this season as they already targeted F1 websites and servers during the Bahrain event to protest against the repression of local opponents. But this time, the hackers are threatening to go even further by also targeting individuals attending the event, via credit card numbers stored on the servers.
They reported their threat via a statement with no ambiguity about their intentions: « As we did in Bahrain, Anonymous intends to ruin Mr. Ecclestone’s little party. From June 7th until the race day on June 10th, Anonymous will block all F1 sites, overwhelm all servers and databases, and everything related to F1 that we find on the Internet. We wish to remind anyone who plans to attend this abhorrent race that, last time, Anonymous found spectators’ personal data, including credit card numbers encoded on F1 servers. Anonymous will be among the many protesters targeting the Grand Prix. A number of students are also ready to demonstrate, something that should concern F1 organizers since the race will bring 100 million Canadian dollars to the region. We, therefore, strongly suggest you boycott the F1 in Montreal and recommend you not to purchase any tickets or merchandise online. You have been warned. »
These threats stem from the dispute between the local government and the students, who cannot tolerate the planned increase in tuition fees. The two parties have thus been in conflict for more than 100 days, which greatly jeopardizes the year for all the strikers. They have therefore entered a phase of radicalization, which has led local authorities to pass the now-famous Bill 78, requiring eight hours’ notice to be given before holding a demonstration of at least 50 people, but which also bans spontaneous demonstrations.
The students have thus passed a resolution this month to (dis)organize a weekend of protests to cancel the Formula 1 Grand Prix and these jet-set events, which represent sexist (sic!), anti-environmental, elitist, and economic values that need to be abolished.»
The threats could primarily target the local metro, which is the main means of transportation used to access the Ile Notre-Dame circuit. The event hosts up to 100,000 people over the race weekend, representing a significant economic interest for the city. Additional security measures have therefore been planned to prevent any incidents that could disrupt the proper conduct of the event.
With the participation of RacingBusiness.fr
