The website belong to UK's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been taken down as a result of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack , which the Anonymous splinter group the ATeam has taken credit for.
The hacktivists claim that their actions are a form of protest against “the abuse of privacy” made by the DWP.
This incident came after the hackers learned that the organization’s employees were found to misuse social security records, TechWeek Europe informs.
DWP representatives have stated that they’re investigating the disruption, but they say that the site has only been “occasionally completely down.”
Earlier this week, the same group of hackers took credit for taking down the websites of Theresa May MP, the UK Supreme Court and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). At the time, they protested against the Leverson Inquiry, the extraditions of hackers to the United States, and the fact that the ICO failed to protect the privacy of individuals.