Belgian Defense Ministry Web Site Shuts Down Briefly

The Defense Ministry of Belgium took its Website off line on January 15, 2007 following a hacking attack during the weekend by a group promoting Turkish nationalist views.

The group called itself "grandchildren of Ottoman Empire and Children of Turkey". It posted English text on the site defending the killings of Armenians in Turkey during World War I. It also asserted that Turkey had no Kurdish problem. The text also called the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, was a terrorist organization that enjoyed Western support, as per a footage shown on Belgium's French-language public TV broadcaster, RTBF.

Andre Flahaut, Defense Minister, said to RTBF Broadcasting Network that the hacking tarnished the image of the Website and the Ministry. On January 15, 2007, the defense ministry was tightening up its firewall and verifying its resistance to hacking attacks, before putting the site online again for the public.

There were no clues why the group had selected a Belgian government Website.

The gang of hackers, nationalists and Islamists seized the Defense Ministry Website on the afternoon of January 15, 2007 and used its pages to relay their message. They voiced that Turkey was only defending itself against the murder of Armenians. The site lost access around 13H30 after flashing a peculiar slogan: "Hacked by VolTigoRe - Turk Forcers."

The hackers in defense wrote on the site that there was no discrimination and violence against the Kurds in Eastern Turkey by the Turkish police and army. They argued that the Kurds formed a separatist group called PKK.

Mrs. Ingrid Baeck, spokesperson of the Belgian Defense Ministry, announced that it was initiating an investigation and the Ministry would be issuing a complaint against the launchers of the attack.

The Website had faced attacks earlier too. Baeck announced that the Ministry shut down the site from its intranet and contains no confidential information.

Andre Flahaut told RTBF broadcasting network that they are determined to identify the perpetrators and the Ministry will gear up with additional protection along with those already existing to avoid such incidents again.

Related article: Belgium: The Latest Target of Chinese Hackers

» SPAMfighter News - 1/18/2007