Cyber attack interrupts Internet services

A cyber attack disrupted access to several popular Web sites Tuesday morning, including Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and Apple. The problems began at 5:30 a.m. and lasted until 7:45 a.m., according to Keynote Systems, a research firm that focuses on Internet performance. During that time, the affected Web sites were slow to download or inaccessible. The attack went after customers of Akamai Technologies, a Cambridge, Mass. , company that distributes content for other firms over the Web.

Caryn Brownell, a spokeswoman for Akamai, called the attack sophisticated, international and large-scale. She would not disclose details about the nature of the attack, its source or any suspects.

However, others said the incident had the hallmarks of a denial-of- service attack, a relatively frequently used technique to disrupt Web sites. Such attacks are often the result of a hacker surreptitiously taking control of other people's computers, then using them to overload a target with data or electronic requests.

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