DoJ website hacked by Anonymous? Update: Who is responsible? Update: Site has been restored

The U.S. Department of Justice website is down this evening. It appears it may have been knocked offline by a hacker. Stay tuned for updates.

Update:

It is unclear whether Anonymous was responsible. Other hackers, some of them linked to Anonymous, are claiming credit:

#anonymous did not take down Justice.gov. Credit goes to @ChannelZeroYT and #UnderGods.—
Nick C____ (@muphiinz) March 18, 2013

This is ChannelZeroYT’s Twitter bio:

The Department of Justice is the chief law enforcement agency for the federal government. If its website is not secure, that is troubling.

Update:

This Twitter user was among the first to tweet about the incident:

TARGET justice.gov and mercosur.int @YourAnonNews @AnonymousWiki @AnonymousIRC @Anon_Central @AnonymousPress—
  (@Havittaja) March 18, 2013

TARGET justice.gov fire fire fire @YourAnonNews @Anon_Central @AnonymousPress—
  (@Havittaja) March 18, 2013

idc TARGET : justice.gov fire fire fire @YourAnonNews @Anon_Central @AnonymousPress @Anonymous_Co @AnonyOps #Anonymous #DDoS—
  (@Havittaja) March 17, 2013

justice.gov isssssssss TANGO DOWN @YourAnonNews @Anon_Central @AnonymousPress @Anonymous_Co #Anonymous—
  (@Havittaja) March 17, 2013

mercosur.int isss TANGO DOWNN—
  (@Havittaja) March 17, 2013

#Anonymous is on a rampage with more than 20.000 Servers justice.gov is TANGO DOWN—
  (@Havittaja) March 18, 2013

justice.gov and mercosur.int issss TANGO DOWN @YourAnonNews @Anon_Central @AnonyOps—
  (@Havittaja) March 18, 2013

@Havittaja and @AnonymousWiki = Team thanks to everyone. justice.gov and mercosur.int is TANGO DOWN @YourAnonNews—
  (@Havittaja) March 18, 2013

Update:

Why aren’t the media covering this? Again, we are talking about the website of the federal government’s primary criminal investigation and enforcement agency.

.@BreakingNews @AP @Reuters Nothing on DOJ website being Hacked? bit.ly/YIVapQ via @TwitchyTeam—
Raphael Gluck (@einfal) March 18, 2013

.@mpoppel @SkyNewsBreak @WSJbreakingnews @BBCBreaking Nothing on DOJ website being Hacked? bit.ly/YIVapQ via @TwitchyTeam—
Raphael Gluck (@einfal) March 18, 2013

Update:

The site has been restored.

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