On Friday, the mysterious hacker collective Anonymous took credit for downing the CIA's website. At the time, it took a bit longer than usual for the group to admit to the attack, and the following day it appeared as if it was apologizing.
In a video "message to the world, and to the CIA", Anonymous says "we are sorry your website is down" and admits "it was not the intended purpose."
Watch Anonymous' message:
Anonymous claims the DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack -- an attack that involves overloading a website's server with traffic -- originated from six other servers that contained child pornography (it appears those sites were the original target). The only way for the CIA to stop the attack on its website, Anonymous says, would be to take down these six servers, which it points out "should have already happened."
It also appears that an individual or sect had taken this action against the CIA without entire support of the whole collective. We have reported before that Anonymous is often composed of different sects, which don't necessarily act in unison or agreement.
As of Saturday, the CIA's website appeared functional.
Of late, Anonymous has also been responsible for hacking into several Alabama government sites, Syrian government servers and a FBI conference call.
[H/T Gizmodo]
