CIA site down, Anonymous claims credit

The Central Intelligence Agency's website would not load on Friday afternoon after the hacker collective Anonymous claimed credit for taking down the website, according to AFP.

The Washington Post said the attack appeared to be a distributed denial-of-service attack. The Post's recorded time for the cia.gov site not working was 3:30 pm, but as of 5:10 pm, the site was still not responsive.

In recent weeks, Anonymous has targeted several government websites, including those of the Department of Justice, the FBI, the US Copyright Office, two of Brazil's largest banks and the Boston Police Department, said TIME.

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A Twitter handle attributed to the group posted this message at 3:25 pm (Eastern Standard Time):

AFP explained that "tango down" is an expression used by US Special Forces when they eliminate an enemy.

Anonymous recently intercepted a phone call between the FBI and Scotland Yard which was discussing what actions to take against the loose group of hackers and online activists.

Meanwhile in Europe, BBC reported that Germany has delayed signing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement after widespread protests in Poland and Slovenia. Recent incidents of websites of organizations that support ACTA have been traced back to Anonymous.

America has already signed ACTA, with the Obama administration stating that "it does not believe ACTA’s implementation would have any effect on US law," according to The Post.

More on GlobalPost: ACTA hits delays in Germany

Following the reported attack on the CIA websites, Anonymous also claimed credit for attacks on websites in Alabama and Mexico, according to PC World.

PC World reported that the group published hundreds of records to protest an Alabama anti-immigration statute as well as e-mails on the Mexican mining industry in addition to bringing down a website related to the Mexican government.