Anonymous, the clandestine group that operates "Operation Payback" and reportedly includes members of the "/b/" bulletin board 4chan.org, has set its sites on Egyptian government Web sites.
Soon after Egypt restored access to the Internet Tuesday, the group launched distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against the Egyptian Ministry of Interior.
"Welcome back to the Internet, #Egypt. Well, except http://www.moiegypt.gov.eg -- you stay down," the group tweeted.
Several minutes later, the group added, "Internet in #Egypt is up. Why isn't Mubarak's site? Because we do not forgive, We do not forget. Egyptians, Hang in there, we are with you."
Group spokesman Gregg Housh told the New York Times that the attack is part of a larger campaign Anonymous is running to support anti-government protests. Last month, the group also took down the Web sites for the Tunisian government and its stock exchange.
This is the latest in a string of DDoS attacks organized by Anonymous. Last month, British police arrested five men for their alleged involvement in a string of DDoS attacks that targeted the Web sites of Visa, MasterCard, Amazon, and PayPal. The companies stopped processing payments and cut hosting ties with WikiLeaks after it released 250,000 State Department cables in late November, a move with which Anonymous disagreed.
Anonymous later said the UK government had made a "sad mistake" with the arrests and said DDoS attacks are simply the digital equivalent of a protest or sit-in.