Anti-IS group claims responsibility for BBC hack
A group that says it targets the online activity of the so-called Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the hack on the BBC that saw brought down its entire network of sites earlier this week.
The group calls itself New World Hacking and told the BBC’s chief technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones that the cyber attack was a “test of its capabilities”. The group contacted the journalist via Twitter in an attempt to clarify its reasoning behind the attack.
Breaking - US-based group calling itself New World Hacking claims it carried out BBC DDoS. Usually targets IS but was "testing" its systems
— Rory Cellan-Jones (@ruskin147) January 2, 2016
"We realise sometimes what we do is not always the right choice, but without cyber hackers... who is there to fight off online terrorists?,” claimed the group. "The reason we really targeted [the] BBC is because we wanted to see our actual server power."
On News Years Eve, thousands of people were greeted with an error message and unable to access the corporation’s sites including iPlayer. The BBC initially said the problem was a “technical issue". It later emerged that the problem stemmed from an attack.