The website of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) became unavailable for several hours on New Year's Eve after a distributed denial-of-service was performed on it, according to a BBC source.
Primarily, it was not known who was responsible for the said attacks. But more recently, a group calling itself 'New World Hacking' claimed responsibility over the infiltration done to the company's website.
In a conversation via Twitter, the group contacted BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones regarding their hacking. "We are based in the US, but we strive to take down Isis [IS] affiliated websites, also Isis members," the group stated. "We realise [sic] sometimes what we do is not always the right choice, but without cyber hackers... who is there to fight off online terrorists?"
The group further stated that they targeted the BBC to be able to test their capabilities and the actual power of their servers, and that they didn't exactly plan to take it down for several hours.
One of the group's members, nicknamed 'Ownz' told the BBC News website's Leo Kelion that the group used a tool called 'Bangstresser,' which was reportedly created by another US-based hacktivist, to be able to direct a large amount of traffic onto the BBC website.
Moreover, he stated that the group has already performed the said technique on ISIS-related websites, but it intended to "really get into the action" against a new list of targets associated with the aforementioned group from Tuesday, two days before the hacking took place.
The company's press office later stated that it would not comment on the hacker group's claim. BBC's website returned to normal operations a few hours after it was hacked.
Source: BBC (1), (2) | Images via BBC
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