The hacking collective known as Lizard Squad have taken down the National Crime Agency website in a revenge attack following the arrest of six individuals who had been connected to previous attacks.
Lizard Squad's official Twitter account tweeted a picture of the collective's logo along with the phrase 'Stressed out?' and a link to the NCA's website.
It's believed that this latest attack is revenge for the arrest of six individuals as part of the NCA's Operation Vivarium which is working to take down Lizard Squad.
The six arrested are between 15-18 years old, highlighting a growing trend that cyber crime is increasingly becoming an enticing option for young people who have surrounded themselves with technology from an early age.
Tony Adams, Head of Investigations at the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit said:
“One of our key priorities is to engage with those on the fringes of cyber criminality, to help them understand the consequences of cyber crime and how they can channel their abilities into productive and lucrative legitimate careers.”
The NCA is the UK's national crimefighting organisation, working in conjunction with local police authorities to tackle serious crime.
The NCA has since released a statement to Sky News highlighting that because of the nature of their work, it is unsurprising that its website comes under constant attack.
"We have a duty to balance the value of keeping our website accessible with the cost of doing so, especially in the face of a threat which can scale up endlessly."
"The measures we have in place at present mean that our site is generally up and running again within 30 minutes, though occasionally it can take longer.
The hacking group are probably best known for the Christmas Day attacks in 2014 against both Sony's PlayStation Network and Xbox Live over the Christmas holidays. The last, and most severe of attacks took Sony three days to get their services back online.
Sony's PlayStation Network, which allows gamers to play online, was taken down for three days during one attack.
The NCA responded a month later, in a joint operation between the UK Regional Organised Crime Unit and the FBI. The organisations arrested a 22-year old man from Thames Valley who was believed to be directly connected to the attack.
An 18-year old was then later arrested in connection to not only the hacking attacks but also to wider charges surrounding the crime of 'Swatting' which is currently sweeping through America.
After the attack, online entrepreneur Kim DotCom conducted a 'peace summit' with the founding members of the hacking group resulting in a declaration that the group would no longer target PSN and Xbox Live.
After the attacks, Lizard Squad started offering a specialised collection of hacking tools which would allow customers to pay for the software and then carry out their own Dedicated Denial of Service attacks using Lizard Squad's infrastructure.
The DDoS attack would allow almost anyone to target a website of their choice and then overload it with traffic, with the end result being that the website eventually has to shut down.
It's believed that those most recently arrested were customers of this service.