CIA websites hacked by Anonymous again: Reports

Washington: Hackers group Anonymous took credit for crashing the Central Intelligence Agency’s Web site Friday, the latest attack on a US federal agency.

According to an announcement posted by the hacktivist group on Twitter it claims responsibility for hacking the website of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States. Sure enough, at this time of writing the website for the CIA (cia.gov) isn’t responding – hours after the attacks were reported.

The posting read: “CIA TANGO DOWN: https://www.cia.gov/ #Anonymous.” A later one pointed to a news story indicating “#Anonymous hackers hit CIA, U.N., Mexico websites.”

This would not be the first time the CIA website has been put offline.

In June 2011, a group affiliated with Anonymous, Lulz Security, temporarily brought down the agency’s homepage.

Local news outlets have reported the incident, and attempts to log onto the CIA site have failed late Friday afternoon. CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood was quoted as saying they are “looking into these reports.”

Other than the CIA, hackers also compromised sites affiliated with the Alabama state government. The Alabama Department of Homeland Security said in a news release that they are “aware of the current situation regarding individual(s) claiming responsibility for hacking into a state of Alabama public website.”

It was not clear at the moment which Alabama website was hacked. It is reported that hackers targeted Alabama government in response to its tough immigration law.