Federal agency Web sites knocked out by massive, resilient cyber attack

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/technology/sns-ap-us-cyber-attack,0,2053985.story

LOLITA C. BALDOR | Associated Press Writer
9:34 PM CDT, July 7, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) — A widespread and unusually resilient computer attack that began July 4 knocked out the Web sites of several government agencies, including some that are responsible for fighting cyber crime, The Associated Press has learned.

The Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and Transportation Department Web sites were all down at varying points over the holiday weekend and into this week, according to officials inside and outside the government. Some of the sites were still experiencing problems Tuesday evening. Cyber attacks on South Korea government and private sites also may be linked, officials there said.

U.S. officials refused to publicly discuss any details of the cyber attack, and would only generally acknowledge that it occurred. It was not clear whether other government sites also were attacked.

Others familiar with the U.S. outage, which is called a denial of service attack, said that the fact that the government Web sites were still being affected three days after it began signaled an unusually lengthy and sophisticated attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.

[bertman]

1. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to

speak on the matter.

Wouldn't want news about something like that to get out now, would we?