Hundreds of popular websites were taken offline for hours on Friday after a critical internet point was hit by multiple cyber attacks.

Hackers brought sites including Twitter, eBay and The Telegraph offline for millions of users after targeting Dyn, a New Hampshire-based company that is responsible for routing internet traffic.

Nobody claimed responsibility but experts said they were simple enough to have been carried out by mischievous teenagers. There was no evidence that any personal data of internet users had been stolen or that individuals’ security had been compromised.

Dyn is one of a handful of “domain name server” (DNS) providers that operate the internet’s address book, ensuring that web addresses such as www.telegraph.co.uk make it to the correct website. If the provider goes offline, then computers do not receive directions to a website, meaning they fail to load pages.