Cybercrime website victim of hacking attack, according to media reports

SOCA, which investigates cybercrime, said it was trying to minimise the impact of a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack by removeing its site from the internet, the BBC reported.

DDOS attacks involve using malware-infected computers to bombard a website with such large amounts of traffic that it ceases to function.

"SOCA has chosen to take its website offline to limit the impact of distributed denial of service attack on other clients hosted by our service provider," a SOCA spokesman said, according to the BBC report.

"The SOCA website is a source of information for the general public which is hosted by an external provider. It is not linked to our operational material or the data we hold," the spokesman said, according to the report.

Hacking group LulzSec claimed it was responsible for the attack.

"Tango down – www.soca.gov.uk - in the name of #AntiSec," LulzSec said on Twitter.

"DDoS (distributed denial of service) is of course our least powerful and most abundant ammunition. Government hacking is taking place right now behind the scenes," the hacking group said.

LulzSec has claimed responsibility for recent hacking attacks on, among others, the FBI, The US Senate, Fox News, Nintendo and Sony Pictures.