Hackers target Brazil's presidential website, ministry
Hacker attacks forced Brazil to shut down its presidential website and other government sites temporarily on Thursday, one day after cyber attacks briefly disabled other government sites.
The Lulz Security group of hackers took credit for some of the attacks and said it had released what it said was personal data on President Dilma Rousseff and the mayor of Sao Paulo.
It was the latest in a global wave of cyber attacks on companies, organizations and governments. The attack on the presidency website "generated a lot of traffic, designed to make the site unavailable. It wasn't to steal information," a government spokeswoman told Reuters.
The website posts presidential speeches, laws and other public information, another spokesperson said. The site was back on the air later in the day. Several other government websites were taken off-line to bolster security following similar attacks, including the sports ministry site, which was still down in the early evening. A ministry spokeswoman said the attack did not affect data or compromise "the heart of the system."
