A hacker wished to give the BBC server as a Christmas gift to cyber criminals in lieu of a certain amount. He hacked the computer server of the public broadcasting company of Britain and launched a campaign on the Christmas Day only to convince people that the server was "available" if they were willing to pay him a price, Reuters reports.

The security team at the BBC was quick to respond to the apparent threat. Even though it is yet to be confirmed whether the hacker was able to find buyers for his proposal, the BBC team has reportedly secured the Web site server on Saturday.

One of the BBC spokesmen refused to comment on the alleged hacking. He informed that commenting on security issues would not be preferred. Reuters was unable to make sure if the hacker caused any sort of damage or stole any data during the attack. It was also not clear how the Web site is used by the BBC as it is an 'ftp' Web site, a kind of system generally used for managing large data transfer through the Internet.

A Milwaukee cyber-security farm, Hold Security LLC, was the first to identify the attack. The farm monitors underground forums which deal with cyber-crime in order to secure stolen information. The researchers at the farm discovered a notorious hacker from Russia, typically known as "Revo0lver" and "HASH." He put the access to the BBC server on sale on the Christmas Day, according to Alex Holden - the founder of the farm.

Mr Holden, who is also the Chief Information Security Officer at the farm, informed Reuters that high profile cyber-criminals were convinced by the hacker that he had been able to infiltrate the BBC Web site. The Russian hacker showed classified files to them only to prove his claim, he said. The farm, on the contrary, could not manage to find out if any deal had been secured following the conversation.