More than 150 Australian websites have been hacked in protest of Australia's reported involvement in spying on Indonesia.

A group calling itself Anonymous Indonesia has taken over a range of websites with addresses ending in .au.

Last week, allegations surfaced that Australia used its Jakarta embassy as a base for political, diplomatic and economic intelligence gathering.

Indonesia reacted angrily to the claims, with foreign minister Marty Natalegawa it is "just not cricket" to engage in such activity.

The hackers claim to have taken over 178 sites, turning homepages into messages to the Australian Government.

"Stop all forms of tapping into Indonesia or we will make your internet network destroyed (sic)," one page read.

Another said: "Do not disturb Indonesia! Do you Uderstand? (sic)."

Some of the sites have now been returned to normal, but many - including Queensland motels and Melbourne plumbers - remain hacked.

Jamie Yousuf's web design business was among those hacked.

"I have never come across it before with any of my client's sites or my own sites so yeah it's pretty shocking," Mr Yusuf said.

"You hear about it all the time, [but] usually they target bigger businesses and international companies and so on and and so forth just to get immediate action.

"It seems a bit shocking that they've attacked the website of a small-time freelance web designer."

The University of Melbourne's Dr Suelette Dreyfus believes the hackers are seeking attention.

"They are trying to be noisy and noticed," Dr Dreyfus said.

"A lot of hackers actually chose to be extremely quiet and you will never know they are there - clearly that is not the case with this."

Because the attacks are believed to have originated in Indonesia, experts believe the hackers likely to be difficult to track down.

Dr Dreyfus warns these attacks may not be the end of it.

"I guess whether there are further attacks probably depends a little bit on whether there are further revelations that come from whistle blower Edward Snowden," Dr Dreyfus said.

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