CIA's website taken down by hackers: media

CIA's website taken down by hackers: media

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Websites of U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Alabama state government were taken down by hackers on Friday, reports indicated.

According to a message left Friday on Twitter page affiliated with the hacking group known as Anonymous, hackers have taken down the CIA website. "CIA TANGO DOWN: https://www.cia.gov/ #Anonymous." it reads.

Local news outlets have reported the incident, and attempts to log onto the CIA site have failed late Friday afternoon. CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood was quoted as saying they are "looking into these reports."

Other than the CIA, hackers also compromised sites affiliated with the Alabama state government. The Alabama Department of Homeland Security said in a news release that they are "aware of the current situation regarding individual(s) claiming responsibility for hacking into a state of Alabama ... public website."

It was not clear at the moment which Alabama website was hacked. It is reported that hackers targeted Alabama government in response to its tough immigration law.

Hackers attack Croatian president's website

ZAGREB, Feb.10 (Xinhua) -- Website of Croatia's Presidential Office was attacked and shut down for hours by hackers Wednesday night, according to a statement from the office.

The attack started at about 10:40 p.m.(2140GMT) Wednesday night, and the website went back to normal at around 1 a.m. Thursday.

Local media reported that the hackers claimed to be linked with the international hacker group named "Anonymous," which carried out the attack in protest of Croatian President Ivo Josipovic's supporting for the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement(ACTA), the global anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting agreement.

The "Anonymous" threatened to attack again on Saturday. The Presidential Office said it would take necessary steps to protect the website.

Azerbaijani official says incoming hacker attacks traced to Iran, Netherlands

BAKU, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Recent hacker attacks that targeted government and public websites in Azerbaijan were traced to Iran and The Netherlands, a senior government official in charge of information technology told reporters Saturday.

Twenty five attacks aiming at websites belonging to the Azerbaijani government, the ruling Yeni Azerbaycan Party and the state news agency took place on Jan. 16, Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Ali Abbasov said.

He added that investigation results revealed that 24 of the attacks originated from Iran and the other one from The Netherlands,

Abbasov said the Iranian government had been informed of the exact location where the attacks were launched.

But Iran could have served only as a route of the attacks that were initiated from a third country, in which case Azerbaijan "needs to cooperate not only with Iran but also with other neighboring countries to prevent such cases," Abbasov added.