A 'hactivist organisation' associated with the 'Anonymous' group has claimed to have brought down the website of the British intelligence and surveillance agency GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters).
The same group, recognised as 'Gator League', had earlier assumed responsibility for shutting down North Korea's internet services.
Before they launched the DDoS attack, Gator League asked its followers on Twitter to help choose their next target for 'Christmas attack'. They were given two options to choose from – the Islamic State or the UK.
"While we wrap up your Xmas giveaway, help us pick a target," the group said in a tweet.
Although the group later said that the Islamic State had "won" on the public voting, the group targeted the Britain's GCHQ site, bringing it down on Tuesday evening.
The website of the British intelligence appeared to be back online after being offline for more than an hour, various members of social media noted.
Gator League on Tuesday took responsibility for the elaborate cyber attack that took place in North Korea bringing down the country's internet access.
"Although we support the idea of Anonymous, we aren't them," Gator League said in a tweet describing who they were. "We are a cyber-terrorist faction out for raw justice."
A US-based internet performance firm said earlier this week that North Korea was experiencing extensive internet outages. The net was back up on Tuesday after a more than nine-hour of outage, Dyn Research, a company that monitors internet performance, said. The country's Internet was down again on Tuesday as reported by various sources.
The continued disruptions came amid an escalating war of words between US and North Korea over the cyber attacks on Sony Pictures. North Korea has been expressing its anger in the past few weeks over the release of the movie 'The Interview' which narrates a fictional story of the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un by US intelligence agents.
