CIA Website Disabled: Anonymous Claims Hack

Online hackers claim to have temporarily disabled the US Central Intelligence Agency's website in the latest such move directed towards a United States federal organisation.

The US CIA's website was briefly inaccessible on 10 February and, while it's now back online, the agency's said it's investigating the cause. A Tweet, meanwhile, on a feed known to involve Anonymous subsequently appeared that featured just three words - ‘CIA Tango Down': an expression used in military circles.

It's not believed that, at any point, data held by the CIA was obtained and/or the agency's computer networks defences were compromised.

Anonymous Hacks

Previous Anonymous hacks have involved so-called ‘Denial Of Service' (DOS) measures, when computers hit one particular serve en masse, typically overwhelming it. US-CERT - the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team - links a number of negative effects to a successful DOS attack. These include lagging network performance, a website not being available and a sharp rise in spam.

This is the second example of high-profile Anonymous activity to have been reported this month. In recent days, the group hacked into a conference call being held between British and US intelligence sources on the subject of - ironically enough - hacking and how to stop it. Not long before that, Anonymous apparently said it had targeted both the FBI's and the US Department of Justice's websites.

CIA Website Hack

Not long after the CIA website hack, an agency representative told news agency CNN: "We are aware of the problems accessing our website, and are working to resolve them."

Other Anonymous attacks occurred within the same timeframe as the prominent US intelligence agency's online services were disrupted, with the websites of organisations in Alabama and Mexico also affected.

"It must be hugely embarrassing for the CIA to be attacked by a denial of service attack...", one source told The Examiner, adding: "In a way this is a good thing, because the CIA can use this to help close gaps in its systems and upgrade its security."

Image copyright US Central Intelligence Agency