Islamist Hackers Snapped Newspaper Website in Kosovo

According to the news reports from Infosecurity-magazine published on August 17, 2009, it is suspected that some Islamist radicals had been responsible for a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack via botnets against a website belonging to Kosovo's Pristina Daily Express newspaper. The attack blocked the site on August 11, 2009.

It is reported that an anonymous individual or a group of hackers attacked the newspaper's online site on the night of August 10, 2009 and posted a message on the front page of the site that remained there for 10 hours.

In the message, it was said that the newspaper was anti-Islamic and ridiculed the Islamic religion, while it was worthy of respect. The missive then extended good tidings to all Muslims and indicated the writer's pride of being Albanian and Muslim.

Berat Buzhala, Editor of the Newspaper, trying to explain the hack said that the newspaper had published exclusive photographs and records of conversations secured by the Prosecution of North Carolina, suggesting how the alleged Jihad faction had been preparing for terrorist acts. Buzhala also indicated that the band comprising seven people had Gjilan's Hysen Sheriff who, said the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had been preparing for terrorist strikes in Kosovo as well, as reported by Scforum during the 2nd week of August 2009.

More news reports indicate that by utilizing an amalgamation of DDoS and simple malware attacks, the Islamist cyber attackers hacked the Pristina Daily website.

Continuing further, Buzhala said that they had been worried since the hack took place. He further added that it was necessary for the newspaper along with its readers to know who were behind the offensive attack, as reported by Infosecurity-magazine.

Additionally, Buzhala is understood to have urged leaders of Kosovo to condemn the assaults that were launched on the website through his newspaper.

According to security specialists, two-million people's country Kosovo, which owns a telephony national code but doesn't own a country domain and is devoid of sophisticated Internet resource, means that because of such poor Internet security, Kosovan websites potentially bear high risk of hackers' attacks.

» SPAMfighter News - 8/31/2009