The Spanish national police force's website was knocked offline for about an hour yesterday by hacker collective Anonymous.
The group claimed in a statement that the distributed denial of service attack launched on the site was "an act of peaceful protest" in direct response to the arrest of three Spanish men linked to the recent PSN hack.
Spanish authorities said the cause of the outage has not yet been determined.
But Anonymous said: "It has come to our attention that you deemed it necessary to arrest three of our fellow anons, ... which you claim to be the leaders of Anonymous and for their participation in DDoS attacks against various websites...
"First and foremost, DDoSing is an act of peaceful protest on the Internet. The activity is no different than sitting peacefully in front of a shop denying entry. Just as is the case with traditional forms of protest...
"Regardless of how many times you are told, you refuse to understand. There are no leaders of Anonymous. Anonymous is not based on personal distinction...
"Arresting somebody for taking part in a DDoS attack is exactly like arresting somebody for attending a peaceful demonstration in their hometown. Anonymous believes this right to peacefully protest is one of the fundamental pillars of any democracy...
"You have not detained three participants of Anonymous. We have no members and we are not a group of any kind. You have, however, detained three civilians expressing themselves...
"You are providing us with the fuel, but now you must expect the fire."