WEST DORSET: PARISH WEBSITE INFILTRATED BY TURKISH NATIONALISTS

Bridport News
st_Dorset__Parish_website_infiltrated_by_Turkish_n ationalists/
April 7 2010
UK

TURKISH nationalists are believed to have hijacked a Bride Valley
website that normally publicises the attractions and activities
available in Puncknowle, Swyre and West Bexington.

Parish Council chairman Tony Edwards was startled and extremely
annoyed to see the Punckowle.net website plastered with Turkish words.

He said: "Not reading Turkish I am not sure what it was. There were
about two identifiable words – one of which was ‘hacking’ which maybe
the same in either language and the other one was something to do
with a 1923 group.

"I didn’t look at it too closely, I was so irritated and had better
things to do with my time."

The Turkish nationals believed to be responsible run a website called
1923Turk.com which outlines the main grievances dating back centuries
they hold against the Chinese, Russians, Serbs, Greeks and Armenians.

Mr Edwards said: "The first thing I had to do was get onto our host
and find out how on earth this could have happened and to get it
taken off. Like any uploading of information to websites, the code
is a secure key known to the originator and people can hack into them.

"We were using free community software and I think the more
straightforward they are the easier they are to hack into to.

"I have not spent a lot of time analysing it. It could be the hackers
picked up some information and decided to be a nuisance. It could
also be that somebody from Turkey was looking to promote their cause.

"The most important thing for me and the web group to do is get on and
replace all the material that was lost and make the site more secure."

Mr Edwards said it was likely to be a few weeks before the website
was up and running again.

In the meantime, he said, Litton Cheney’s Simon Nobes of PanoScope
had dropped everything to help and get a holding page up to say the
site was being rebuilt.

Mr Edwards said police told him as there was no especially offensive
material and the hacker did not make any financial gain they would
not investigate.