Hackers knock out Kremlin's website

In what is seen as 'hacktivisim,' cyber criminals reportedly hacked Kremlin website, apart from the central bank and Foreign Ministry website.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's press service revealed that 'powerful' cyber attacks were targeted at Kremlin site.

According to News24, a group calling itself Anonymous Russia highlighted the Kremlin website's crash on Twitter, signalling it may have been behind the attack.

The same group claimed earlier that it took down the website in May 2012 in solidarity with protests against Putin on his return for a third term as president.

A security expert at Kaspersky Lab, Sergei Lozhkin, revealed that this was a case of 'hactivisim', which is an expression of political or social protest.

Friday's attacks are particularly embarrassing for Putin because Russia blocked access to the internet sites of prominent Kremlin critics Alexei Navalny and Garry Kasparov on Thursday, under a new law critics say is designed to silence dissent.

Although, the Kremlin denies allegations of censorship or pressure on the media, but its latest move was something government opponents see as a crackdown on independent media and particularly the Internet.

Lozhkin revealed that there had been similar attacks this week on the Internet sites of several Russian media outlets that support Putin, the report added.