TURKISH NATIONALISTS HACKED WEBSITE OF BELGIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY
De Standaard website, Belgium
15 Jan 2007
"Turkish nationalists hack website of Federal Defence Department",
A group of Turkish nationalists hacked the website of the Federal
Defence Department for a while on Sunday [14 January]. The hackers
identified themselves as the "grandchildren of the Ottoman Empire".
The Defence Ministry will lodge a complaint.
On Sunday, the Defence Ministry’s website displayed an unusual page
signed "Hacked by VolTigoRe – Turk Forcers". The normal homepage
had been replaced by a text posted by Turkish hackers. The hackers
wrote in bad English that they are defenders of Islam. The hackers
also mentioned the 1915-17 Armenian genocide and claimed that "the
Turks had been compelled to defend themselves against the Armenians,
who had killed many Turks".
In addition, the hackers wrote that "there is no Kurdish problem
in Turkey" and that the PKK [Kurdish Workers’ Party] is a terrorist
movement that is receiving foreign support. The hackers ended their
text by threatening that they "will never stop hacking your websites
whenever mistakes vis-a-vis Turkey are being made".
This text disappeared later in the day. The website was inaccessible
as of 1330 [1230 gmt]. According to a defence employee, it was to go
back online in the course of the day, but he was unable to say around
what time this would happen.
Defence Ministry will lodge complaint
The Belgian Defence Ministry will lodge a complaint against the group
of Turkish nationalists.
According to Ingrid Baeck, the ministry’s spokesperson, the hacked
website – [1] – does not contain confidential information.
The site is managed by the general directorate for public relations
and image building. The Defence Ministry immediately launched an
investigation to find out how the internet pirates had managed to
hack the site. "We will take additional measures to avoid this from
happening again," Baeck said.
The defence spokeswoman added that websites of other foreign defence
departments, including that of the Pentagon, also fell victim to
hackers in the past.