Over 100 government websites hacked

More than a hundred Maldivian government websites were defaced in a cyber attack late last night.

An image posted by the hackers on the defaced Maldives Meteorological Service (Met Office) website claimed a group named “Syrian Revolutionary Soldiers” is responsible for the hacking and that it was done to bring focus on the civil war in Syria.

An official from Met Office said their website was hacked sometime last night and that the office’s technicians are examining the breach.

Some of the major institutions’ websites compromised include; Tourism Ministry, Attorney General’s Office, Auditor General’s Office, Judicial Service Commission, Capital Market Development Authority, Civil Court, Maldives Foreign Ministry, Finance Ministry, Housing Ministry, Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH), Environment Ministry, Economic Ministry and the central bank, Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA).

However, websites of Maldives Police Service, Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), Maldives Customs Service and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) were promptly restored.

A group named Anonymous Maldives, claiming to prove the website’s inadequate security, hacked the United Nations Maldives website in March 2013. Websites of the Criminal Court and Indian High Commission in Maldives were also hacked in 2013.