Hackers Lulz Security hit CIA website

The hacker group Lulz Security has taken down the public website of the C.I.A.

Lulz Security, which claimed recent attacks on the U.S. Senate, Sony Corp, News Corp and the US Public Broadcasting System television network, announced the hack last night on its twitter feed, saying "Tango down – cia.gov – for the lulz".

The hackers have also opened up a phone request line for targets, the Inquirer reports

The C.I.A. website could not be accessed from New York to San Francisco, and Bangalore to London after the attack, The Telegraph reports.

This attack apparently took the website down for only about an hour, and Lulzsec has not released plundered data, "unlike when it hacked the US Senate," the Inquirer reports.

A short while later Lilzsec tweeted: "Goodnight twitter. The CIA anti-lizards will probably rise from the packet sea while we rest our shining-yet-saturated power field arrays."

Security analysts downplayed the attacks, suggesting the hackers were just looking to show off.

"All they're doing is saying 'Look how good we are,'" Jeffrey Carr, author of the book Inside Cyber Warfare: Mapping the Cyber Underworld" told the Telegraph. "These guys are literally in it for embarrassment, to say 'your security is crap.'"

While fun may be another main motivation, the group has made some powerful enemies, the Inquirer writes, including the "infamous 4chan forum members and the even more scary CIA."