Today, a number of government websites were defaced by hackers. The hackers were a group calling themselves the Kurd Electronics Team an they managed to deface the websites by displaying their logo on the websites. This sort of behaviour is common with hackers as they try to show their skill for ransom or for any other reason.
However, the ICT authority was able to get hold of the affected websites and if you visit the affected websites, you are greeted with a “Website is under maintenance, we’ll be back soon!” notice.
Well, now the ICT authority has issued a statement that explains what happened to the government websites. The government has confirmed that 18 government websites were affected and they were hosted on a single server.
“This morning, a cluster of 18 government websites, hosted on a single server and managed by ICT Authority were defaced. This defacing was on websites which are devoted to sharing information with the public. These websites are not connected to any core government data base or systems.
These core government databases and systems, including IFMIS and other critical infrastructure, are managed within a secure government network that has the requisite security. These remain safe and secure. A team at ICT Authority is currently working round the clock to restore normalcy.”
It is great that they have confirmed that the critical database is safe and secure since they are hosted on a ‘secure government network.’ We hope that they will resolve the security issues soon and prevent such an embarrassing situation from happening again.
