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kpete

(72,012 posts) Fri Feb 10, 2012, 10:17 PM Feb 2012

"CIA TANGO DOWN: Anonymous claims to have taken down CIA’s Web site

Anonymous targets the CIA

Websites affiliated with the CIA, Mexico's mining ministry and the state of Alabama were down Friday, allegedly done in by hackers, government officials and a well-known hacking group reported.

A message Friday on a Twitter page and Tumblr feed affiliated with the hacking group known as Anonymous claimed credit for taking down the Central Intelligence Agency's website.

The posting read: "CIA TANGO DOWN: https://www.cia.gov/ #Anonymous."

Numerous outside reports indicated the CIA's website was down, and CNN's attempts from late Friday afternoon into the evening to get into the site failed.Asked about the outage on the agency's public website, CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood said, "We are looking into these reports."

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/10/anonymous-targets-the-cia/

5 replies

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"CIA TANGO DOWN: Anonymous claims to have taken down CIA’s Web site (Original Post) kpete Feb 2012 OP

Are we sure they aren't a division of the CIA? nt MADem Feb 2012 #1

Anonymous has done so many things to embarass and expose the US Cali_Democrat Feb 2012 #2

I wonder whether Anonymous is actually not a group JDPriestly Feb 2012 #3

It's not hard...DOD systems are poorly protected HipChick Feb 2012 #4

What real damage has any of that stuff caused? MADem Feb 2012 #5

MADem

(135,425 posts)

1. Are we sure they aren't a division of the CIA? nt

Reply to kpete (Original post)

Fri Feb 10, 2012, 10:32 PM

Feb 2012

Cali_Democrat

(30,439 posts)

2. Anonymous has done so many things to embarass and expose the US

Reply to MADem (Reply #1)

Sat Feb 11, 2012, 01:02 AM

Feb 2012

If anything, the CIA and FBI are actively trying to hunt them down. We know the FBI is...http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/20/business/la-fi-hacker-arrests-20110720

JDPriestly

(57,936 posts)

3. I wonder whether Anonymous is actually not a group

Reply to Cali_Democrat (Reply #2)

Sat Feb 11, 2012, 01:13 AM

Feb 2012

but just random people. If they were at all organized, they could easily be caught. It's also possible that they are located in some foreign country. I don't see how any group could do what they are doing based in the US.

HipChick

(25,485 posts)

4. It's not hard...DOD systems are poorly protected

Reply to Cali_Democrat (Reply #2)

Sat Feb 11, 2012, 01:38 AM

Feb 2012

MADem

(135,425 posts)

5. What real damage has any of that stuff caused?

Reply to Cali_Democrat (Reply #2)

Sat Feb 11, 2012, 01:39 AM

Feb 2012

I don't know...I think sometimes they are too clever by half.

They never really "hack," they just deface pages, e.g. the stock exchange. The "big whoop" lasts a few minutes, and then that's that.

Also, what better way to enhance one's street cred than to put it out there that they're being "hunted" by three letter agencies? For all we know, it could also be a great recruiting tool--find out which bozos are involved in these "calls to hack" and are motivated enough to jump on the bandwagon to engage in these coordinated maneuvers with total strangers....and then offer them a job in exchange for dropping the charges.

It's a better recruiting strategy than "Be All That You Can Be" was, years ago.

Anything's possible, of course, but something's fishy about those guys. IMO.

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