UK Home Office Hacked, Anonymous Claims Responsibility

The United Kingdom’s Home Office, the UK Government department responsible for immigration and passports, drug policy and police and anti-terrorism efforts, had its website attacked by hackers claiming ties to Anonymous on Sunday, the Associated Press (News - Alert) reports.

The Home Office announced that it “was the subject of an online protest.”

Alleged members of the hacking collective posted tweets which they said explained the motive for the Denial Of Service (DOS) attacks. The tweets protested the country’s “proposed draconian surveillance measures,” as well as its extradition procedures, and especially what they said was the  U.K.’s alleged “derogation of civil liberties.”

The Home Office appeared to downplay the incident. “There is no indication that the site was hacked and other Home Office systems were not affected,” a statement said. “Measures put in place to protect the website meant that members of the public were unable to access the site intermittently.”

The Home Office said it would be monitoring its Web site for any more attacks like this one.

The attack on the Home Office is not the only one Anonymous hackers have directed at the online presence of government agencies. They also recently mounted attacks on Chinese government websites in protest of that country’s human rights record.

“Dear Chinese government, you are not infallible, today websites are hacked, tomorrow it will be your vile regime that will fall. What you are doing today to your Great People, tomorrow will be inflicted to you. With no mercy,” one message said.

And amorphous online collectives are not the only ones getting in on the hacking action. U.K.’s Sky News has also come under fire for the actions of its reporters, who hacked email accounts on at least two occasions.

In a statement, the news channel said it hacked “in the public interest.”