The Federal Trade Commission s main site, as well as some other government sites, have been hit by DDoS attack. FTC.gov seems to be the only site that has crashed to date. DDoS attacks have been used for years for various reasons, ranging from settling disagreements between hacking crews to business competitors taking down each other’s sites. They’re favored by all levels of attackers for the simple reason that they re easy to execute and are brutally effective. With all of the botnets for sale or rent these days, aspiring DDoSers have plenty of resources at their disposal.
Source: https://threatpost.com/ddos-attacks-ongoing-against-ftc-other-sites-070709/72919/