High-profile websites including Google, Facebook and Twitter have been targeted by hackers in what is described as a “massively co-ordinated attack”. Other sites such as the blogging platform Live Journal were also reportedly targeted. Twitter was taken offline for more than two hours whilst Facebook’s service was “degraded”, according to the firms.
Google said it had defended its sites and was now working with the other firms to investigate the attack. “Google systems prevented substantive impact to our services,” the company said in a statement. The company has not confirmed which services were targeted in the attack, but it is thought that its e-mail service Gmail and and video site YouTube were under fire.
Max Kelly, chief security officer at Facebook, told technology website CNET News that the attack was a strike targeted at a single user, pro-Georgian blogger Cyxymu. “It was a simultaneous attack across a number of properties targeting him to keep his voice from being heard,” he told the website. Friday marks one year since the outbreak of war between Russia and Georgia.
