Report: Hackers take over U.S. Sentencing Commission’s website

The hacking group Anonymous says it hijacked the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s website early Saturday in retaliation for the death of Internet activist Aaron Swartz, according to media reports.

The commission’s site had a message warning that when Swartz committee suicide earlier this month “a line was crossed,” the Associated Press reports.  The site is currently unavailable. 

The hackers say they've infiltrated several government systems and are threatening to make public secret information, according to the news service.

U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz last week defended her office's prosecution of Swartz.

Critics, including Swartz's family and members of Congress, have accused prosecutors of seeking excessive penalties against Swartz, who allegedly stole articles from a computer archive at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Swartz's family said his suicide was the "product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach."

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