Hackers take down the cyber system of al-Qaeda

Hackers on Wednesday temporarily shut down al-Qaeda's Internet and its ability to communicate messages through videos and statements.

Al-Qaida's online communications have been temporarily crippled, and it does not have a single trusted distribution channel available on the Internet, Evan Kohlmann of Flashpoint Global Partners told NBC News. The company monitors the al-Qaeda's communications.

The identity of the hackers is not known and the attack was carried out in the past few days. The attack was well coordinated and it involved the use of an unusual cocktail of relatively sophisticated techniques, Kohlmann said.

Last year, UK government hacked into al-Qaeda website and replaced the instruction on how to build bombs with the recipes of cupcakes, a British newspaper reported earlier this month.

The target was al-Qaeda's online magazine called Inspire, a product of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen. The magazine was intended for Muslims in the West.

No one has claimed responsibility for the shutting down of the al-Qaeda Internet, but Kohlmann said it could be government-sponsored.