The stated aim of the 'Anonymous' group's attack – one of the first activist protests of its type to attack a copyright organisation in Spain, Infosecurity notes –- was to crash the site.
Unconfirmed reports suggest, however, that the site did not crash, but traffic to the portal was significantly slowed down, as is normal with DDOS attack of this type.
As of 10am CET this morning, however, site traffic to the SGAE portal was back to normal, Infosecurity notes.
According to Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs, the Spanish-headquartered IT security vendor, recent attacks of this type have targeted the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), resulting in 17 server crashes and up to two hours of inactivity.
The Tieve.tk newswire says that the 'Anonymous' cyber-activist group – operating via the 4Chan portal – called its DDOS attack 'operation payback' and claims that the attack is one of several the group has staged in recent weeks.
What appears to have upset the activist group, says Panda, is the attempted closure of free file-sharing websites by groups like the RIAA and the MPAA.
Corrons said that his team has been in contact with the SGAE to advise them of last night's attack and has been monitoring the events in real time throughout the night.
"The way things are progressing, it will be no surprise to see cyberprotests organised country by country targeting different copyright protection associations", he said.