Editor’s Note – It has been widely acknowledged that our homeland security concerning the internet is exasperatingly insecure. When sites like StratFor, the CIA, the State of Alabama along with many others can so easily be raided, we are in deep trouble. All these hackers have to do is take the raid up a notch or two and they could seriously harm our systems and the well-being of our fellow citizens.
Imagine a raid of our SCADA system controls being re-tasked or worse. What next, cutting off our cell systems, or a hospital’s computers, or maybe the cooling chambers of our nuclear power plants? Time for the government to get real serious about these raids.
Anonymous targets the CIA
By the CNN Wire Staff
Websites affiliated with the CIA and the state of Alabama were down Friday, allegedly done in by hackers, a state official and a well-known hacking group reported.
On an affiliated Twitter page and Tumblr feed, the hacking group known as Anonymous claimed Friday that it had taken down the Central Intelligence Agency’s website.
The posting read: “CIA TANGO DOWN: https://www.cia.gov/ #Anonymous.”
Numerous outside reports indicated the CIA’s website was down, and CNN’s attempts late Friday afternoon to get into the site failed.
Asked about the outage on the agency’s public website, CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood said, “We are looking into these reports.”
Additionally, information was “compromised” in a hacking of Alabama state websites, the Alabama Department of Homeland Security said in a news release.
“We are aware of the current situation regarding individual(s) claiming responsibility for hacking into a state of Alabama … public website,” Alabama Department of Homeland Security Director Spencer Collier said in the release. “This is an ongoing investigation by the Alabama Bureau of Investigation and any further comment would be premature at this time.”
CNN’s Barbara Starr contributed to this report