Ethiopia Under Massive Cyber Attack, A Dozen of Govt. Websites Hacked
Ethiopian cyber-space under attack, so far the official website of Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) and the Office of Federal Auditor General(OFAG) get hacked. According to resources his is the second attack on ENA since last March. ENA’s website was hacked by a certain individual named “Artin”. The hacker defaced the homepage of ENA with a Kurdish flag. The e-mail address Arrtin@hotmail.com leads to a facebook account of Artin Duhoke, which doesn’t provide much info about the individual. On the other hand, OFAG’s website was defaced by a hacker named “Hero_Aze”. He changed the homepage of the website into a black background with a note that claims “[in] 1918 Armenians killed more than 50 thousand Azerbaijans, plundered their houses drove tens thousands people out of their homes……”.
There are only a few hacking activities attributed to “Hero_Aze” or “HeroAze” on the web. It is not clear whether the hackers randomly picked ENA’s and OFAG’s websites or have a specific reason to. The websites of ENA and CSA were restored soon after the hacking, unlike the websites of OFAG, Afar region and Adama city which either lacked the required expertise or attention – as it is the case with most government websites.
The two sites are neither the first nor the sole victims of cyber-attacks, among Ethiopian government sites. In 2012 alone, more than a dozen government websites have been defaced by hackers. The homepage of the Afar regional state website is defaced by a hacker named “ReturnOfEviLzz” at least as of mid-March. Some webpages of the Adama city website are defaced by a hacker called “The.Psiqopat” since February. This hacker apparently defaced about ten homepages or webpages of different government websites last February. The website of the Central Statistics Agency (CSA) was attacked by a hacker named “Altiiever” and another named ‘‘Ashayne’’ in mid-April.
The two sites are neither the first nor the sole victims of cyber-attacks, among Ethiopian government sites. In 2012 alone, more than a dozen government websites have been defaced by hackers. The homepage of the Afar regional state website is defaced by a hacker named “ReturnOfEviLzz” at least as of mid-March. Some webpages of the Adama city website are defaced by a hacker called “The.Psiqopat” since February. This hacker apparently defaced about ten homepages or webpages of different government websites last February. The website of the Central Statistics Agency (CSA) was attacked by a hacker named “Altiiever” and another named ‘‘Ashayne’’ in mid-April.
-Source (Danielberhane Blog)