The DoS attacks “flooded” the server, by sending thousands of multiple requests simultaneously.

"National newspapers are particularly high-profile targets, particularly if they publish a story that someone doesn't like," said Paul Vlissidis, the technical director at security specialists NCC Group.

The Estonian government also revealed that its Internet services had been recently paralyzed by a nation-wide attack.

Not to make newspapers paranoid about hacker attacks, but news websites should ensure their content is backed up and that their server has proper defenses – as well as a reactive IT team if needed.

The Telegraph’s blogs and My Telegraph service were unaffected, as they ran on another server.

Source: Media Guardian