14 DAY TRIAL // A hacker group called AlQaedaSec launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack on the official site of New York City (nyc.gov).
“#TANGODOWN nyc.gov you just got #911'D! #Allah give us strength against the filthy sinners!” the hackers tweeted.
s3rver.exe, one of the participants in the attack, has told us that they’re using botnets to send large numbers of requests to the site to keep it down.
He claims that the attack has been initiated simply “for the lulz,” although, judging by the pictures that represent burned American flags posted by the hackers, it looks like this is a form of protest against the US government.
In the past week a lot of “tango downs” have been announced by hacktivists worldwide.
First, Anonymous hackers, coordinated by Havittaja, took down three websites owned by the Brazilian Federal Police. Then, on Monday, the site of the Central Intelligence Agency (cia.gov) and the one of the US Department of Justice (justice.gov) were also taken offline for several hours.
Update. Sources tell us that the AlQaedaSec group is also known as UGNazi, a hacker collective involved in the attacks that targeted the UFC, back when Dana White revealed his support for SOPA.