Online hacker group Anonymous has launched attacks against the Italian government’s website on Sunday, reported ANSA news agency.
Anonymous announced its distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) assaults, attributing them to the unstable political and economic situation in Italy.
DDoS attacks shut down websites by overloading them with so many simultaneous requests that computer servers cannot handle the load.
However, because of a police alert, the sites in Italy had put counter measures in place before the attack.
The group Anonymous is considered to be responsible for the attacks on the government websites in Egypt and Tunisia recently.
In December 2010, the group claimed attacks on the websites of Visa and Mastercard after the companies withdrew their support to whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
Regarding the attacks in Italy, Anonymous mentioned the judiciary system and government, which it said was "implicated in prostitution, including minors."
