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"The UK allegedly created a spy unit that, other than mounting attacks on cyber enemies, also targeted hacktivists Anonymous and LulzSec, NBC News reports, citing documents taken from the US\u00A0National Security Agency by whistleblower Edward Snowden.\r\n\r\nThe Government Communications Headquarters Communications (GCHQ) \u2014 the UK\u2019s intelligence service -- launched a DDOS attack to\u00A0scare away 80 percent of the users of Anonymous Internet chat rooms, according to the documents. NBC News notes that this makes the\u00A0British government &amp;quot;the first Western government known to have conducted such an attack.&amp;quot;\r\n\r\nThe British reportedly aimed the DDOS attack against IRC chat rooms where criminal hackers were believed to have been concentrated, after authorities were alarmed by a spate of hacking attacks in 2011,\u00A0when\u00A0online hackers wreaked havoc\u00A0across the Internet, bringing down websites on a purported crusade of righteousness. The victims included\u00A0the UK.\r\nA GCHQ spokesperson emphasized in a statement to NBC News that it carried out its work &amp;quot;in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework&amp;quot; and that its activities -- which it didn't elaborate on -- were &amp;quot;authorized, necessary and proportionate.&amp;quot;\u00A0\r\n\u27A4\u00A0War on Anonymous: British Spies Attacked Hackers, Snowden Docs Show [NBC News]\r\nImage via Shutterstock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/uk/2014/02/05/uk-allegedly-targeted-anonymous-lulzsec-hacktivists-via-ddos-attack-documents-show/>