On Sunday evening, New York magazine published a big feature sharing the stories of 35 women who said they were sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby.
35 women tell their stories of being assaulted by Bill Cosby. A project 6 months in the making http://t.co/C5ussU3ocj
But the magazine's website went offline hours later and was still inaccessible late on Monday morning.
The magazine said it was aware of the issue and was working on a fix.
Our site is experiencing technical difficulties. We are aware of the issue, and working on a fix.
On Twitter, a self-proclaimed hacking group called "Vikingdom2016" claimed to be behind the website's troubles.
Anddddd........ http://t.co/pJeaQkGh0M is #OFFLINE #Vikingdom2015 #Vikingdom2016
http://t.co/pJeaQkGh0M will be down for hours.... :D ENJOY
Lol, we ruined New York big night.
The name of the group is similar to "Vikingdom2015," a Twitter account (later deleted) that in March claimed to be responsible for targeting a number of state government websites in Maine, Connecticut, and New Jersey with denial of service attacks.
When contacted by BuzzFeed News, Vikingdom2016 said the website was taken down out of a hatred for New York itself. However, the account offered no proof it was behind the attack.
Vikingdom2016 said also said it was unaware of the accusations surrounding Bill Cosby.
However, after claiming to have read the article on Cosby's alleged sexual abuse, the account said, "Bill Cosby is amazing!"
The account also threatened to continue targeting New York, L.A., Miami, and Maine.
With its site down, New York magazine was directing readers to its Instagram account to listen to two women's accusations against Cosby.
Our site is still down but you can listen to 2 women's testimony about Cosby on Instagram https://t.co/GEoDc8pMF0 + https://t.co/CLlPl40cGS
However, the website was eventually accessible for some users.
Vikingdom2016 then claimed it was "going to attack bigger New York websites" in the future.
http://t.co/YguxNPFkXf is BACKUP! Happy? Vikingdom2016 is going to attack bigger new york websites so stay tuned. #Vikingdom2016
Around 3:45 p.m. Monday, the site was back up and running.
http://t.co/Da753TyKeZ is back online. Read our Bill Cosby cover here: http://t.co/6tNIL1QrMq