Hackers take down Chicago website

CHICAGO: Anti-NATO hackers brought down the city of Chicago's home page for hours Sunday as leaders of the military alliance met in Chicago and thousands of protesters took to the streets.

The page, cityofchicago.org, went down from midmorning until early afternoon after a shadowy group posted a YouTube video claiming it was "actively engaged in actions against the Chicago Police Department" because of the way police were treating protesters.

In a video posted by AntiS3curityOPS Anonymous, a narrator wearing a Guy Fawkes mask said chicagopolice.org "should be fired on as much as possible. We are in your harbor, Chicago, and you will not forget us."

Police sources familiar with city and federal probes into the incident said hackers did bring down the city's home page, but chicagopolice.org, the city's ClearPath community policing page, was untouched. A related effort to bring down NATO's international site failed, according to one of the sources.

Police, however, did not issue an official confirmation of the attack. "There may have been some cyberattacks," police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said, adding he was more concerned with "handling the protests today."

A Twitter site with the same name as the group issued updates of the protests, at one point stating: "We neither confirm nor deny any allegations made against us in regards to the NATO and Chicago Police Dept. hacks."