LulzSec attacks, now at CIA

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/15...77812.html

The homepage of the Central Intelligence Agency, http://cia.gov/, appeared to have been suffered an attack from a hacker group on Wednesday evening.

The CIA site would not load properly and website DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com confirmed that the site was down. However, ReadWriteWeb's Curt Hopkins, who notes that he lives across the country from CIA headquarters, said the website appeared "normal."

LulzSec, a hacker group that has attacked the Senate website twice in a week, claimed responsibility for the outage in a tweet.

"Tango down - cia.gov - for the lulz," @LulzSec tweeted around 5:48PM ET.

LulzSec recently announced that it had established a hotline at which it would be accepting requests for new sites and services to target. LulzSec has claimed responsibility for attacks on Sony, gaming company Bethesda, PBS.org, as well as gaming sites Minecraft and League of Legends. The group's motto reads, "Laughing at your security since 2011."

LulzSec has not added the CIA to its list of "releases"--documents containing information taken during its cyber attacks--on its website and it's possible that the group may have brought down the website, though not taken sensitive data from the agency.

Still, the attack is likely to be taken as a serious affront to the CIA, given its national security responsibilities.

"I think the guys at LulzSec may have just made the biggest mistake of their lives," security expert Graham Cluley told the Huffington Post in an email. "The CIA aren't going to like having their nose bloodied like this."

All Things D writes of the alleged denial of service attack, "The site is for all intents and purposes the public face of the agency, so it’s not likely that any classified information is being taken or any sensitive communications disrupted, but attacking government Web sites is a federal crime under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and probably some other laws I’m not thinking of."

The group said of its previous attack on Senate computers, "We don't like the US government very much. Their boats are weak, their lulz are low, and their sites aren't very secure. In an attempt to help them fix their issues, we've decided to donate additional lulz in the form of owning them some more!"

The CIA was not immediately available for comment.

UPDATE: The CIA.gov website was sporadically accessible around 6PM ET.

These guys seem to be bored during a summer break...

These guys seem to be bored during a summer break...

Sums it up since they're probably all like 12

Sums it up since they're probably all like 12

I can't tell if you are trying to be sarcastic/funny or not. Because if you are, why are you assuming that only kids are on summer break now?

Sums it up since they're probably all like 12

Because kids can hack the CIA and major gaming companies?

As I recall the CIA or one of those groups was hacked a long time back by a 16 some odd year old kid.

Nothing like seeing an intelligence branch of our government getting hacked, lol.

Because kids can hack the CIA and major gaming companies?

I'm pretty sure that the site was just DDOSed, not hacked. Which from what I heard is much, much, easier to do.

I wonder what the poor bastards will think if the CIA knocks on their doors.

Because kids can hack the CIA and major gaming companies?

I'm pretty sure that the site was just DDOSed, not hacked. Which from what I heard is much, much, easier to do.

I wonder what the poor bastards will think if the CIA knocks on their doors.

I'm pretty sure that the site was just DDOSed, not hacked. Which from what I heard is much, much, easier to do.

I wonder what the poor bastards will think if the CIA knocks on their doors.

"Oh pomegranate"

>LulzSec.

With a name like that, sounds like some hackers from 4chan or Something Awful got really bored. I saw this on the news last night; was both sad at the CIA getting hacked, as well as amused as to see what will happen to LulzSec if the CIA decides to actually track down the people and "pay them a little visit".

>LulzSec.

With a name like that, sounds like some hackers from 4chan or Something Awful got really bored. I saw this on the news last night; was both sad at the CIA getting hacked, as well as amused as to see what will happen to LulzSec if the CIA decides to actually track down the people and "pay them a little visit".

"A new meme devoloped that has shocked the world when the Lulz hackers were not captured, instead defined the new term "Osama'd" as the entire household was assasinated."

I'm pretty sure that the site was just DDOSed, not hacked. Which from what I heard is much, much, easier to do.

I wonder what the poor bastards will think if the CIA knocks on their doors.

Never mind the fact that most of the websites they hacked were from SQL injections, which is also rather easy to pull off. These guys have yet to pull off any super hacking from what I've seen.

Do they have a DEATHWISH or something? Out of all the things they could do, they do the CIA.

Huge balls on these guys.

I can't tell if you are trying to be sarcastic/funny or not. Because if you are, why are you assuming that only kids are on summer break now?

It wouldn't be outside the realm of possibilities. Computers are pretty mainstream media these days and kids younger and younger are learning what to do and what computers are capable of. I mean back in my day a 5 year old wouldn't know how to work the damned thing, not know of the internets, and be slightly more controlled and pushed to "go play outside; computer makes your brain rot". My little cousins 2 years back, (when they were like 4) could easily turn on the computer, and navigate the internet to play games. What's to say that some 12-15 year old, who grew up with the computer as a central component of life, just happened to develop a hobby of computer programming/hacking for fun? If anything, they just found a much requested job. I'd hire a hacker (professional, not some amateur) to show me the security flaws in my system. Or hire one to not only do that, but help write software for you to guard against other hackers.

It's a useful skill to have, but like a lot of useful skills, they go to waste on people who don't really care to use them.

Do they have a DEATHWISH or something? Out of all the things they could do, they do the CIA.

Huge balls on these guys.

They could just be getting really cocky because none of them were caught and they just happen to get the god-complex where they believe themselves to be invincible (And at this point it seems like it as well).

j3st5r > lulzsec

They could just be getting really cocky because none of them were caught and they just happen to get the god-complex where they believe themselves to be invincible (And at this point it seems like it as well).

I think this is far more likely than the idea that these guys are very ballsy. Kids thinking they're untouchable. I definitely hope the CIA comes down HARD on these children and makes an example of them.

Do keep in mind that the hacking the CIA website is not the same as hacking internal CIA stuff. The CIA website might not even be made by the CIA.

Do keep in mind that the hacking the CIA website is not the same as hacking internal CIA stuff. The CIA website might not even be made by the CIA.

And in this case they just DDoS:ed (or similar) the CIA website. Didn't hack anything.

Considering their VAST funds come from a source that a child could accumulate, and those funds give access to the underground, i now think lulzsec is unstoppable...at least until they piss off the government enough to track their asses and f'uck them hard. Which is what they just did.

I like how they're acting like hot pomegranate cause they DDoS'd the CIA website. You'd think they just stole $4 million dollars or something.

Because kids can hack the CIA and major gaming companies?

If you looked at most of the major cases, then you would know that yes, they can. It's not that hard to hack into just about anything with enough spare time, and kids have nothing but spare time. They are also the only ones dumb enough to actually try hacking into a government organization, any adult knows that just because you CAN doesn't mean you SHOULD.