Hackers report taking down CIA website
The hactivist group that calls itself LulzSec claimed to have taken down the CIA's website on Wednesday afternoon. Connections remained sporadic by early evening on the East Coast, but by 9 p.m. ET, the site appeared to be fully restored.
Preston Golson, a spokesman for the CIA, said the agency was checking into reports of the hack but had no further comment.
The news of another cyber scalp, which the group tweeted - "Tango down - cia.gov - for the lulz" - apparently marks another major website that has been taken offline recently by cyber protesters. Just who or what LulzSec is remains unclear. The still mysterious group began to make waves earlier this spring. CNET has reported that LulzSec is a spinoff from another hacktivist organization that calls itself Anonymous. But unlike Anonymous, the LulzSec hackers have not issued any political messages.
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The name of the group is a derivative of LOL (laugh out loud) combined with security. It has adopted as mascot a cartoon of a monacled man with a handlebar mustache, wearing a top hat and tie, who is holding a glass of wine.
In May, LulzSec came to the public's attention when it went after the website operated by Fox television's "X Factor." The hack left the personal information of contestants and well as internal Fox data exposed. Since then, LulzSec has figured - or at least claimed credit - for hacks carried out against Sony Music Japan, Sony Pictures, Sony BMG Belgium and Netherlands, Sony Computer Entertainment Developer Network and Sony BMG.
It also defaced a PBS website after the airing of a documentary by the public television network that the group viewed as critical of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The group managed to post a spoof news article on the site claiming that the dead rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls were alive and residing in New Zealand.
In carrying out its myriad hacks, LulzSec has also made sure to leave mocking calling cards. After launching its sundry attacks against Sony, it left posts online poking fun at "silly Sony" and "You Sony morons," adding that "everything we have will be published in multiple ways to ensure maximum embarrassment and exposure for [Sony] and their security flaws."
Flexing its muscles on Monday, LulzSec penetrated a Senate server but was not able to access any files. In a statement it later issued, the group described the hack as a "just for kicks" attempt to help the government "fix their issues."
"We don't like the US government very much. Their boats are weak, their lulz are low, and their sites aren't very secure," it wrote in an online post. "In an attempt to help them fix their issues, we've decided to donate additional lulz in the form of owning them some more!"
On Wednesday, hackers again attacked the Senate's public website but it was not immediately clear who was behind that probe.
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"LulzSec is a spinoff from another hacktivist organization that calls itself Anonymous" I highly doubt this is true, I am pretty sure they were influenced into going into hacking by Anonymous to get on the map, like they have here, making themselves infamous
These hackers are actually doing everyone a great service. They are exposing the laziness and ignorance of the owners of these sites and databases and they are raising awareness amongst the public about how these issues may impact their own privacy and security. I'd argue that most of the members of Lulzsec are from US, Canada and Europe...be thankful that they're doing this as more of a political prank, and that they're not actually terrorists seeking to harm.
All of you people bashing hackers, you DO realize that the government and major corporations actually hire some of these people to hack their products and services to test for security flaws? In fact, there are hacking contests with prizes and awards. And here you kids are talking about beating and killing these people? Are you out of your minds???
Why isn't there more outrage that the FBI and CIA sites, things YOUR TAXES pay for, were able to be hacked into in the first place? Why isn't there more outrage from the Fox X Factor contestants whose personal contact information is now on the Internet? I found one of my own friend's personal info on there, her e-mail address, cell phone, name, address... Why are we getting mad at the hackers when all they're doing is showing how careless these organizations are with YOUR information, and in some case, YOUR MONEY!?!?
I'm astounded that you don't seem to know the difference between a hack and a DoS attack. The CIA was not hacked. Their system was not exposed. The network was overloaded to the point where the routers and servers quit answering requests. A DoS attack is not an indication of a security flaw, it is a network capacity flaw. As a tax payer, I don't want the CIA to pay for bandwidth that they normally would not use just to prevent a DoS attack from being effective.
On another note: Attacking the CIA probably isn't the brightest thing to do.
Additionally, DDoS attacks (and FYI, I *do* know what a DDoS attack is, kthx) are still something major corporation and government services should be prepared for. Remember when Anonymous tried to DDoS Amazon.com? They weren't able to. That site can handle large amounts of traffic, because it learned its lesson from the kind of traffic that Christmas shopping rushes generate. If a company like Amazon can wise up and prep its servers for that kind of traffic flow, don't you think other corporations and government services that people similarly rely on should do the same?
Your comment is flawed. You're still missing the point, same as the others. Whether it's a simple DDoS attack or an exposure of internal files, Anon and Lulzsec are exposing web flaws and security holes in general that should be addressed for everyone who uses these sites.
Think again. Hackers are NOT to be 'thanked' for a single thing. HACKERS are to be taken out back and shot, beaten within an inch of their lives for their greedy, selfish acts. That's ALL this was, greedy, selfish, more "look ma, this is me" garbage.
As far as what this was:
A DDOS (denial of service attack) is NOT a 'hack'. It's an attack. Now, if they got in and defaced something, by all means, but simply 'taking down' a website is something so simple even a child could do it (which, is most likely just what these hackers are).
This is what the world is coming to, unfortunately. If someone doesn't like you, or your opinion, or what you represent, then forget actually trying to just go your own way, you must be a total idiot and try to attack them. It's sad, so very, very sad, and honestly, there's no future if that's the case.