Hackers target Georgian websites

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 11 Aug 2008 at 10:11

Georgian government and commercial websites are being defaced by hackers, as part of an alleged "cyber war" originating from Russia.

According to the Washington Post, the Georgia Foreign Affairs website was vandalised, with images of Georgia's president being altered to depict him as a Nazi. The website was removed for several hours, but is currently up and running with its content restored to normal.

As well as government sites, the commercial Caucasus Network has also been subjected to a sustained denial of service attack, which is also originating in Russia, according to blog reports.

"All efforts are being made to regain server control, and International assistance is requested to provide added Internet routing via neutral cyber space," says security researcher Jart Armin in a blog post.

According to some reports, German hackers were able to temporarily route traffic through Deutsche Telekom.

Armin claims that the attacks are part of a "cyber war underway in parallel with conventional warfare". Russian troops invaded Georgia on 8 August, following a Georgian attack on separatists in the Ossetian town of Tskhinvali.

Although it is unclear who is perpetrating these attacks, military hacking is no new phenomenon. Hackers have previously targeted the Pentagon, stealing an "amazing amount" of sensitive security data relating to military operations. MI5 has also issued warnings of the cyber threat from China, claiming that Chinese hackers had targeted Government computers at Whitehall.