Iranian Cyber Army takes credit for VOA hack

The so-called Iranian Cyber Army has apparently hacked into the website of the US-funded news service Voice of America.

Hackers calling themselves the Iranian Cyber Army cracked into the website of the federally-funded news service Voice of America today, temporarily bringing the site to a screeching halt. As of this afternoon, the English language VOA homepage seemed to be partially back online, although many photos still failed to load, and the speed of the site was greatly diminished.

Meanwhile, some VOA pages remain emblazoned with the logo of the Iranian Cyber Army – a flag, an AK-47, and a planet that looks a little like Earth, and a lot like Saturn – and a message to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "Mrs. Clinton, do you want to hear the voice of oppressed nations will from heart of USA [sic]?" the copy read. "Islamic world doesn't believe USA trickery. We call on you to stop intervening in Muslim countries."

VOA is a government-controlled and funded service, which broadcasts – via radio, television, print, and the Web – to foreign countries.

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In a brief on the hack, the VOA reported that the Iranian Cyber Army failed to gain access to VOA computer networks. However, the hackers "did gain entry to an outside computer system that operates a domain name server – a database of Internet addresses available worldwide – and redirected VOA traffic to the hackers' own site, the VOA reported.

It's been a busy year for hackers and the people who love them. Check out our previous coverage of the WikiLeaks fiasco and the launch of OpenLeaks, the WikiLeaks successor. In the meantime, make sure to sign up for the free weekly Innovation newsletter. The newsletter, which includes all sorts of tech and gadget news, is emailed out every Wednesday morning.