'Anonymous' hacktivists attack UK home office, PM sites

Hacktivists from the "Anonymous" collective attacked the online homes of the United Kingdom Home Office and Prime Minister early Sunday (Manila time) with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, a computer security firm said. Sophos said the attacks prevented legitimate users from visiting the two sites, which they flooded with unwanted Internet traffic. "The hacktivists, operating under the Anonymous banner, say that they have launched the action in support of Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon and TVShack's Richard O'Dwyer who face extradition from the UK to the United States. The attackers have rallied others to join the denial-of-service attack via social networks such as Twitter," Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley wrote in a blog post. Screenshots of tweets from the Twitter account of @Anon_Central as posted on Cluley's blog post showed Anonymous brought down the Home Office website and encouraged members to "Keep Firing!!!" and "Keep it down! Make them hear you!" Visitors to the Home Office site were greeted with a timeout or proxy error. He also said the hacktivists launched an attack on the website of the British Prime Minister, www.number10.gov.uk. The site appeared disrupted as of 5 a.m. Sunday (Manila time) but appeared to be back to normal as of 5:30 a.m. "You have to admit that this is an audacious move by Anonymous and its supporters. Other hacktivists who have launched DDoS attacks against websites belonging to British authorities have been arrested in recent history, and are currently facing trial," Cluley said. — LBG, GMA News