The official website for the Central Intelligence Agency crashed on Friday afternoon, in an attack claimed by activist hackers group Anonymous.
 
The site was down for at least an hour Friday afternoon.

Anonymous took credit for the unresponsive website on a Twitter account affiliated with the group, tweeting: “CIA TANGO DOWN.” No immediate reason was given for the apparent denial of service attack, but a follow-up tweet reads, “Anonymous - We do it for the lulz.”

Last month, the hackers group claimed to have crashed the Justice Department website, saying it was done in retaliation for prosecutors shutting down the file-sharing site Megaupload.com.

Iran has blocked access to Gmail, Hotmail, Facebook and other major websites inside the country, according to various reports.

“This appears to be another step toward creating a firewall in Iran to block access to the global Internet. Some have expressed concern this heralds the creation of a National Internet that would keep Iranian citizens within a walled-off domestic network much like an office Internet," Computer & Communications Industry Association President & CEO Ed Black said.

“While this may end up being a short term block to Internet freedom, our hope is that it will raise awareness about the threats to citizens and the Internet ecosystem when a government takes unilateral action to control Internet communication.”

According to CNET, some Iranians are still able to get around the government firewall by using proxy servers. The Iranian government is reportedly denying the services are blocked.

The Federal Communications Commissions released an interactive map on Friday of areas potentially eligible for $300 million in one-time funding aimed at expanding mobile access across the nation.

The map shows the areas currently unconnected by mobile are concentrated in the Western portion of the country, particularly in states like Idaho and Nevada.

“As our new map demonstrates, millions of Americans still live, work, and travel in areas where advanced mobile networks have not been built out," said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in a statement.

Google remains on top of the U.S. search engine rankings with 66 percent of the core search market, showing a slight increase in the latest figures from comScore.

Google led the field in January with 66.2 percent of the search market, up 0.3 percent from December. Microsoft’s search sites were second with 15.2 percent, followed by Yahoo at 14.1 percent. Microsoft was up 0.1 percent from December, while Yahoo was down 0.4 percent.

Google’s share of the search market has become a target of scrutiny by lawmakers and regulators in recent years, as the search giant has antitrust complaints from competitors as it branches out into new Web services.

The Justice Department is set approve Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility as early as next week, according to a Wall Street Journal report. 

The agency was probing whether the deal violated antitrust law.

If approved, the acquisition will give Google a foothold in the mobile phone industry and could boost its Android mobile operating system.

Google would also gain access to Motorola’s trove of patents, which it can use to fend off lawsuits from Apple.

Motorola split into two companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions, early last year. Motorola Solutions, which provides data and communications tools to businesses and government agencies, will remain an independent company.

A pair of unions said Friday they would enter into a partnership to more effectively bargain for transportation workers.

The partnership, between the parent group of the union for flight attendants and a union that represents airline, transit and rail workers, comes on the heels of Congress approving a funding bill for the Federal Aviation Administration that some said they could live with and others strongly opposed.

But the Washington-based Communication Workers Association and Transit Workers Union said they would be more effective at lobbying lawmakers if they worked together.

Google is developing a home entertainment system that streams music wirelessly throughout the home, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Eastman Kodak will close its camera business, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Microsoft is opening retail stores to compete with Apple stores, The New York Times reports.

LinkedIn beat earning expectations, TechCrunch reports.

Confused Facebook users thought Mark Zuckerberg endorsed Mitt Romney, Gawker explains.

THE LEDE: A federal judge granted the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) an accelerated briefing schedule Thursday for its lawsuit against the Federal Trade Commission over proposed changes to Google's privacy policy. The advocacy group claims the changes violate the search giant's previous agreement with the FTC over the failed rollout of its Buzz social network. EPIC hopes to force the FTC to block the changes under the terms of the settlement, but Google argues the group is wrong about both the facts of the case and the law itself. The accelerated briefing schedule should allow both the FTC and EPIC to weigh in before the changes take effect on March 1.

Lawmakers want more answers from Google on privacy: Also on Thursday, Reps. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) and G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) wrote to Google, pressing the Web giant for more answers about planned changes to its privacy policy. The letter is a follow-up to last week's closed-door briefing between Google officials and lawmakers. After the briefing, Bono Mack told reporters she did not think Google was entirely "forthcoming," and said she would press the company for more answers.

Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) urged congressional negotiators on Thursday to drop a provision that would restrict the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) ability to oversee auctions of airwaves, or spectrum, saying the measure would hamper competition in the wireless industry.

"Taking away the authority to structure auctions in a way that will promote competition is a serious threat to consumers and the future of wireless competition in this country," Kohl wrote.

As chairman of the Judiciary Committee's Antitrust subcommittee, Kohl is an influential voice on competition issues.