RADICAL TURKISH GROUP MAIN SUSPECTS IN HACKER ATTACK
By Ashfaq Ahmed, Staff Reporter

Gulf News, United Arab Emirates
March 1 2007

Dubai: Hackers from Turkey managed to access Dubai eGovernment
hosted websites but the attempt was foiled within two hours, a senior
official said.

"We have successfully foiled an attempt by hackers to corrupt data and
impair some government websites that are hosted by Dubai eGovernment,"
said Salem Al Shair, eServices Director of Dubai eGovernment.

He told Gulf News the hackers accessed the Dubai International Quran
Awards website and also managed to damage some data.

"They managed to enter the environment and also hacked into two other
sites of Dubai Awqaf and one other department but our security team
blocked the hacking within two hours," he added.

"We believe the hackers belonged to an extremist group in Turkey as
they also pasted a message in Turkish apparently referring to the
killing of Hrant Dink and the approving of it," he said.

Fifty-three-year-old journalist Dink, who was a Turkish citizen of
Armenian descent, was shot in January this year.

According to reports, he faced constant threats and legal proceedings
and had gone on trial numerous times for speaking out about the mass
killings of Armenians by Turks at the beginning of the 20th century.

He had also received threats from nationalists, who viewed him as
a traitor.

Al Shair said the hackers also damaged some files.

"There was no motive to make money as there is no financial data on
the websites," he said.

Dubai eGovernment hosts more than 30 websites.

Earlier, in a statement issued by the Dubai eGovernment, Al Shair said:
"We have yet to ascertain the identities of the hackers and the exact
location of their operation, but we have generated significant leads
that will ultimately lead us to the persons behind this act."

Al Shair said hackers have attacked some sites on eHost, which has
caused a malfunction to some services and loss of data. "We have taken
immediate action by disabling the hacked sites to fix the problem. We
have also checked other sites and guarantee that they are safe and
secure from future attacks. Within a short time, our teams were able
to recover all the files that were lost and restore all programs that
were affected," he said.

Al Shair said there had been previous hacking attempts, which were
also foiled due to the team’s expertise. He added Dubai eGovernment
adopts a high-security system to prevent hacking, but this does not
mean that it is completely impregnable.

"This problem is not unique to us as it has happened to other
high-profile organisations in other countries. One of the positives
from this incident is that it has allowed Dubai eGovernment to learn
more about the latest techniques and strategies used by hackers.

"This way, we were able to close the gaps in our system and take
appropriate action to prevent similar incidents."

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