The website of the Home Office, the branch in charge of immigration control, was taken offline from 9 p. m. British Standard Time on Saturday, the BBC reported. By five o’clock on Sunday morning, BST, the site was up and running, but its functionality was poor.
Anonymous claimed responsibility for a distributed denial-of-service attack opposed to ArrayA DDoS that floods with so many requests that it blocks other users. Government officials told the BBC that no knowledge had been collected.
Anonymous said it also targeted the online page of 10 Downing Street, the seat of government and apartment of Prime Minister David Cameron. However, government officials denied any disruption. The BBC said the site gave the impression that the attack on the Home Office was slow and intermittent for a while.
Anonymous’ motive may have simply been to protest against email surveillance, extradition proceedings between the UK and the US, and more. U. S. Citizenship, or both. An anonymous tweet on Twitter said the organisation was opposed to “draconian surveillance proposals”, while others said: “You shouldn’t hand over British citizens to foreign countries without proof. “
The British government is contemplating primary adjustments in relations between the United Kingdom and the United States. The extradition treaty to make it more balanced, according to the BBC. Critics say it’s less difficult to extradite from the UK than the other way around.
The government is also taking email surveillance measures to combat crime and terrorism. Critics say the tweaks threaten privacy.
Anonymous said in a tweet before the latest attacks that it would launch DDoS attacks against U.K. government sites every Saturday, the BBC reported.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for security vendor Sophos, called the attacks “audacious.”
“Other hacktivists who introduced anti-UK government DDoS attacks were recently arrested and are ultimately on trial,” Cluley said on the company’s blog.
In fact, two alleged U. K. Anonymous hackers and three men were arrested last month in attacks on Fox Broadcasting, Sony Pictures Entertainment, security company HBGary Federal and other entities. The arrests followed a federal indictment issued in New York.