Hackers have compromised the Irish opposition party Fine Gael's website, leaving a message claiming to be from Anonymous.
Fine Gael said it was working on restoring the site after it was "professionally hacked" on 9 January, leading to personal data on around 2,000 supporters reportedly being lost.
"The website will be offline while we follow-up with the appropriate authorities to resolve the matter," a message on the party's site read.
The initial defacement on the website called for free speech to be respected.
"Nothing is safe, you put your faith in this political party and they take no measures to protect you," it reportedly read.
"They offer you free speech yet they censor your voice. Wake up!"
Anonymous or not?
Questions have been raised following the attack over whether Anonymous, which became a prominent group last year thanks to its pro-WikiLeaks hacks, was actually responsible.
Forum comments on Anonymous related websites have noted how the message did not include the typical mark of the hacker group.
Most Anonymous defacements have come with a sign-off that reads thus: "We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us."
Such a message was left on the Tunisian Government website in an attack thought to have been carried out by the now famous group.
One post on AnonNews said the lack of the sign-off proved the hack on Fine Gael "was not done by Anonymous but was done by another party trying to play off the blame to Anonymous."
The defacement also came with a message that the site was "owned by Raepsauce and Palladium."
According to reports, the FBI has opened an investigation as the website is hosted in the US, whilst the Irish Data Protection Commissioner has been brought in on the case as well.
Tom Gaffney, UK security advisor for F-Secure, told IT PRO he had spoken with Irish colleagues and agreed it highly unlikely Anonymous was behind the attack.
"Their whole approach is defending free speech on the web and this really doesn't fit the profile," Gaffney said.
"Nor does the method of attack. Anonymous have typically focused only on taking a site down through DDoS [distributed denial of service attacks], whereas this actually stole data."
Gaffney added Anonymous will have to take the blame, or indeed credit, for the attack.
"Any anon organisation is open to abuse."
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