Hackers have attacked the website of the British Home Office Hackers have attacked the website of the British Home Office leaving the website out of service for at least one hour on Saturday night. The attack, which hacking group Anonymous pledged to carry out days before on Wednesday, left the website offline with a message reading “Due to a high volume of traffic this page is currently unavailable.”
Anonymous claimed the attack on Twitter in a message reading “TANGO DOWN - http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk For your draconian surveillance proposals! Told you to #ExpectUs!”
The cyber-attack is a major cyber-security embarrassment for the British government as denial-of-service attacks are considered among the less sophisticated techniques hackers use to shut down websites.
Anonymous first posted a Twitter call for concerted action to target the Home Office website on Wednesday and a volley of similar messages followed.
In an online flyer before the attack, hacktivists said they would take action in protest to extradition of three British citizens to the US -- Gary McKinnon on hacking charges, Christopher Tappin on arms trade charges and Richard O’Dwyer on copyright infringements.
"A faction of hactivist group Anonymous in the UK has invited its supporters to draw digital arms in protest against the extradition of three UK citizens to the US,” an article accompanying the flyer read.
There were also other online posts saying they are angry at “draconian surveillance proposals” that point to the recent proposals to give the government immediate access to every private details of individuals including their emails, phone calls, visited websites and even chat logs.
The Home Office confirmed before the attack that its “website may be the subject of an online protest” but the announcement was being made after hackers took down its website with officials avoiding confirmation of a successful attack.