Hackers were testing a new tool called Bangstresser

Jan 2, 2016 15:25 GMT  ·  By

A group of hackers that call themselves "New World Hacking" has taken credit for the major DDoS attack that knocked the BBC offline for a few hours on New Year's Eve.

The hackers contacted the BBC's technology correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones, and said they didn't mean to knock off their site, the attack being only a test for their new DDoSing tool.

"It was only a test," said Ownz, one of the New World Hacking team members. "We didn't exactly plan to take it down for multiple hours. Our servers are quite strong."

Testing a DDoSing tool called Bangstresser

The hacker told Mr. Cellan-Jones that their new tool, called Bangstresser, was specifically designed by a US-based hacktivist, and they plan to use it against ISIS (IS, ISIL, Daesh) targets.

He also said that the group, formed in 2012, is made up of 12 hackers, eight males and four females, and they're all only interested in attacking ISIS targets. All of the group's members are based in the US.

The group is supporting Anonymous campaigns but is not officially part of the hacker collective. Previously, they've participated in the #OpKKK and #OpParis Anonymous campaigns, which exposed the real identities of Ku Klux Klan members and shut down tens of thousands of ISIS-affiliated Twitter accounts.

The BBC website had no chance

Based on a screenshot provided by the group to Mr. Callen-Jones, Bangstresser is capable of launching 600 GBps attacks, more than enough to bring even the largest Internet websites to their knees.

According to an earlier report on the BBC DDoS attack, the main BBC website, the iPlayer platform, and the iPlayer Radio app experienced a complete failure during the morning of December 31.

BBC staff said that the DDoS attack affected one of the iPlayer databases, which malfunctioned and took town all connected services.