Internet hackers attack Al-Jazeera website, condemn news service's Syrian civil war coverage

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

The website of international news service Al Jazeera was hacked Tuesday by a group idenitified only as Al-Rashedon. The type of group and its exact purposes are unclear at this stage, although it appears to be supportive of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

	We have hacked you because your lack of support of Syrian government and militant groups backed by that government. Al Jazeera has been spreading lies.
—Al-Rashedon statement

A screenshot of the hacked page contains the current Syrian flag displayed on the top left and a screenshot of a regular Al Jazeera homepage, overlaid by a graphic resembling a rubber stamp with the word "HACK" written on it and a silhouette of two men sitting at a desk.

As well as identifying the group which hacked the website in English and Arabic, the bottom left of the image also contains an Arabic language statement from the group criticising Al Jazeera for its coverage of the Syrian civil war. When roughly translated, the message means: "We have hacked you because your lack of support of Syrian government and militant groups backed by that government. Al Jazeera has been spreading lies. We're compelled to do so on behalf of the Syrian people."

According to technological weblog Gizmodo, reports have emerged of the .net and not the .com version of the website being hacked. The site reports that some users have not been able to access the website.

Wikinews contacted Al Jazeera English about the incident and as of 8:31pm UTC, had received no response.

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This story has updates

See Al Jazeera website restored after Al-Rashedon hack, September 6, 2012

Sources

Wikinews

This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details.

Wikinews

This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details.

Rania El Gamal and Erika Soloman. "Qatar's Al Jazeera website hacked by Syria's Assad loyalists" — Reuters, September 4, 2012
Sam Biddle. "Al-Jazeera Gets the Crap Hacked Out of It (Updated)" — Gizmodo, September 4, 2012

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