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'Assange supporters' claim to hack Yorkshire councils | 'Assange supporters' claim to hack Yorkshire councils |
(about 4 hours later) | |
Hackers are claiming to have taken two Yorkshire council websites offline as part of a campaign to free Julian Assange. | Hackers are claiming to have taken two Yorkshire council websites offline as part of a campaign to free Julian Assange. |
The WikiLeaks founder had been taking refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London until his arrest on 11 April. | The WikiLeaks founder had been taking refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London until his arrest on 11 April. |
The websites for Barnsley Council and Bedale Town Council were targeted on Tuesday morning. | The websites for Barnsley Council and Bedale Town Council were targeted on Tuesday morning. |
Barnsley Council said its site was restored by 11:30 BST and the National Cyber Security Centre had been alerted. | |
Bedale council said it was unaware of a website issue. | |
Tweets from hacking groups the Philippine Cyber Eagles and Anonymous Espana claimed responsibility. | Tweets from hacking groups the Philippine Cyber Eagles and Anonymous Espana claimed responsibility. |
Barnsley Council said it had experienced a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS), which it explains as where "a hacker overwhelms a website making it unusable for regular users". | |
A spokesman said: "We became aware of the issue at approximately 08:40. | |
"Having initially believed the issue was not related to a cyber-attack, while investigating the issue it became clear that the amount of traffic hitting the council website was massively above normal levels." | |
He added: "No customer data has been lost, stolen or accessed by the attack against the council's website and the council remained fully in control of the situation." | |
A tweet from the group CyberGhost404, which linked to the crashed Barnsley Council website, said: "Free Assange or chaos is coming for you!" | A tweet from the group CyberGhost404, which linked to the crashed Barnsley Council website, said: "Free Assange or chaos is coming for you!" |
That accounts claims to belong to the founder of a hacking group known as the Philippine Cyber Eagles. | That accounts claims to belong to the founder of a hacking group known as the Philippine Cyber Eagles. |
A tweet from the account Anonymous Espana included an image suggesting the group had access to the council's files and was threatening to leak them. | A tweet from the account Anonymous Espana included an image suggesting the group had access to the council's files and was threatening to leak them. |
Mr Assange, 47, sought asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden on a rape allegation that he denied. | Mr Assange, 47, sought asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden on a rape allegation that he denied. |
He remained in the embassy, fearing a lesser charge of failing to surrender to the court in 2012 could lead to his extradition to the US. | He remained in the embassy, fearing a lesser charge of failing to surrender to the court in 2012 could lead to his extradition to the US. |
He is currently being detained at Belmarsh prison. | |
Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk | Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk |