CIA website goes down, hackers claim responsibility

Reuters ^ | Wed Jun 15, 2011 8:37pm EDT | Jim Finkle

[Pan_Yan]

(Reuters) - 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.

...

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.'"

[NonValueAdded]

Bringing the website down is one thing, doing it undetected is a whole different ballgame. Perhaps the hackers did the former but best of luck on the latter.

Just for the record, agent Bond, that last remark was sarcasm.

[eaglestar]

When you have Obama, Neapolitan & Holder running the country there are going to be security breaches such as this one.

[oyez]

Carr said. "These guys are literally in it for embarrassment, to say 'your security is crap.'"

Oh yeah, sure, right. Our security is crap. There has probably been more strange fingers in CIA files than Madonna's under ware.

[Don Corleone]

"We are looking into these reports," a CIA spokeswoman said.

Serious shrug and strong head slap to follow.

[La Lydia]

I suspect it is really LOLs Security.

[Dallas59]

Kinda like changing the price of a bottle of ketchup on the shelf at the store with a magic marker....but when you get to the check out...

[Ramius]

I use the CIA website all the time. Their “World FactBook” is a great source for doing basic research on various countries around the world. All of the vital statistics about countries are there. As government agency websites go... it’s kinda’ nice to actually have one that is practical and useful for a change.

[bgill]

So many appointed czars of questionable backgrounds. If the likes of Huma can get past security checks then our secrets are as wide open as the border.