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The affected forum belonged to the Epilepsy Foundation, an organisation founded to support sufferers and to promote medical research into the condition.

The attackers used Javascript to place flashing animations on the site,

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and also redirected browsers to a third party site that hosted images designed to induce fits. Moderators were forced to temporarily shut down the site, but it is now working once again.

The attacks began on 22 March, and caused several seizures amongst those who logged on. The true number of those affected will not be known for some time, though, believes Ken Lowenberg, senior director of web and print publishing at the foundation, as those users may not yet feel safe to return to the forum and comment on the issue.

One user reported that she "locked up" when she saw one of the animations, and had to be rescued by her 11 year old son who closed down the browser window. Another user described a "spike of pain" in her head when she saw the animation.

Posts on the forum claiming to be from the hacker group Anonymous have claimed responsibility, but the true culprits of the attack are not yet known.