Hackers target crime agency

The Serious Organised Crime Agency website was taken offline yesterday after it was targeted by hackers.

The "distributed denial of service" attack, which involves web addresses being hit by a flood of visits they are unable to cope with, was carried out on Wednesday night. Similar attacks in the past have been linked to the "hacktivist" group Anonymous.

The attack came as the Ministry of Defence's head of Cyber-Securiety, General Jonathan Shaw, admitted top secret military systems had been breached. He said some attacks may yet remain to be identified.