Epress.am News from Armenia
Cyber attacks on several sites of state organs and pro-government media in Azerbaijan continue.
Baku-based news agency APA reported that a hacker group calling itself AzerianCyberArmy has attacked the official website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Earlier, the websites of Azerbaijan Constitutional Court, Information Computer Centre of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies, and New Azerbaijan Party were hacked.
There’s never been such a massive and well-planned attack on Azerbaijani sites. The scale and consequences of these acts suggest that a virtual war on the internet against Azerbaijan has begun, chair of the Azerbaijan Internet Forum NGO Osman Gunduz said in an interview with the Baku-based Turan news agency.
“Until now the attacks have been only on individual sites and often the sites of non-governmental organizations. But now under attack are government agencies, including law enforcement agencies,” he said.
Political statements have appeared on the attacked sites. In particular, Azerbaijan’s authorities are accused of violating the rights of believers and pursuing anti-Islamic policies.
On noon on Jan. 16, a message from the AzerianCyberArmy was placed on the site of the political party Yeni Azerbaijan (www.yap.org.az) that read “The Aliyev regime and their henchmen, hankering for Azerbaijan’s wealth, hope to to escape the ocean storm on the stones called Baku. The same optimistic hopes were entertained by Bin Ali, Mubarak and Gaddafi.”
Asked where the hacker attacks might be coming from, Gunduz said that an analysis of the sources revealed that the attacks might be coming from Iran. But it’s too soon to give a final conclusion, he added.
“The hackers didn’t intend to attack specific agencies,” said Gunduz. “They managed to find a flaw in the system and as a result, the most vulnerable became the targets of the attacks.”
The attacks continued on Jan. 16. Apart from the Yeni Azerbaijan, the Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Constitutional Court website, also hacked were the sites of Trend news agency, Ministry of Education, azermarka.az, vet.edu.gov.az, din.gov.az.
After some time, some of these sites were restored.