Anonymous takes CIA web site offline

HACKTIVIST COLLECTIVE Anonymous has claimed responsibility for an attack that took the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) web site offline.

Anonymous initially said that just because it reported the attack, that didn't mean the group had carried out the attack. Later Anonymous tweeted that it had "hit the CIA" and "#Anonymous continues its attack on government websites knocking the CIA and INTERPOL offline".

At press time the CIA's web site was not reachable on HTTP port 80 but was working through SSL port 443. There is no report that the attack resulted in web site defacement or theft of data, suggesting that this was simply a denial of service attack.

The CIA is no stranger to having its web site attacked. Last year Lulzsec, an offshoot of Anonymous, launched a similar attack that rendered the agency's web site useless for hours.

Anonymous has not said why it attacked the CIA's web site but it's hardly a surprising target. Earlier this month Anonymous claimed to have listened in on a call between the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the British police and posted the audio recording on the internet. Following the takedown of Megaupload, Anonymous initiated attacks on the US Department of Justice and the FBI. µ