The public website of the Central Intelligence Agency went down on Wednesday evening as the hacker group Lulz Security said it had launched an attack.
Lulz Security has claimed responsibility for recent attacks on the Senate, Sony Corp, News Corp and the U.S. Public Broadcasting System television network.
The CIA site initially could not be accessed from New York to San Francisco, and Bangalore to London. Later in the evening service was sporadic.
“We are looking into these reports,” a CIA spokeswoman said.
Lulz Security has defaced websites, posted personal information about customers and site administrators, and disclosed the network configurations of some sites.
Security analysts have downplayed the significance of these attacks, saying the hackers are just looking to show off and get as much attention as possible.
In the case of the CIA attack, hackers would not be able to access sensitive data by breaking into the agency’s public website, said Jeffrey Carr, author of the book Inside Cyber Warfare: Mapping the Cyber Underworld.
“All they’re doing is saying ‘Look how good we are,'” Carr said. “These guys are literally in it for embarrassment, to say ‘your security is crap.'”
Lulz only made claims that it attacked www.cia.gov, and there was no evidence on Wednesday evening that sensitive data in the agency’s internal computer network had been compromised.
There also were no apparent links to more serious network security breaches recently at the International Monetary Fund and Lockheed Martin Corp. Lulz Security has not been linked to those incidents.
Lulz, whose members are strewn across the globe, announced the attack shortly before 6 p.m. East Coast time.
“Tango down,” the group Tweeted, pointing to www.cia.gov.
Although the group, also known as Lulz Boat, fashions itself more as pranksters and activists than people with sinister intent, its members have been accused of breaking the law and are wanted by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.
Lulz broke into a public website of the Senate over the weekend and released data stolen from the legislative body’s computer servers.
In May, the group posted a fake story on the PBS website saying that rapper Tupac Shakur was still alive and living in New Zealand. Shakur was murdered in 1996.
Copyright © 2011 Reuters
2 thoughts on “CIA web site hacked”
Is this a game with the hackers? They cost millions and maybe billions of dollars in damage by hacking into facilities that are suppose to be secure. So they go in and steal personal information and way to often get a mild slap on the wrist for all the personal mischief they cause. How many have suffered ID theft over this crap? Now they find a hole in the CIA or somewhere else for bragging rights.
What’s really ugly about this is story is that American tax debtors are being ripped off to the tune of hundreds of millions per annum to provide government cyber security. They were asleep at the wheel when it came to utilizing the intel concerning 9/11 as well as WMD’s in Iraq etc. The beat goes on…no?
Instead we have government types sitting on their butts surfing porn sites in many cases those focusing on ‘kiddie porn’ while using copy machines to distribute images among their associates of like persuasion. I’m supplying the google page for an entire list to support my accusation concerning our government not at work.
https://www.google.com/search?q=government+employees+caught+surfing+porn+sites&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ADRA_en
To me, all the news in recent years is ‘bad news’ for America. It was probably like this in ancient Rome just prior to the barbarians sacking the same in 410 A.D. Many centuries of corrupt Emperors and Senate along with a soft populace sated on the bloodlust of never-ending, “bread and circus” games (distractive entertainment); in our times endless HDTV delivered, MSM supported, mind-numbing propaganda, game shows etc.
Our military has degenerated into an offensive arm of globalists r’ us, our economy and currency is in shambles while our feckless ‘leadership’ lacks the necessary acumen or will to do what’s necessary to turn things about.
Carl Nemo **==
Comments are closed.