Anonymous Takes Down Top Saudi Arabian Government Websites
Anonymous took things in its hands and conducted cyber attacks on Saudi government websites against the execution of Nimr Al Nimr.
The online hacktivist Anonymous is not happy with the recent execution of 47 people in the Kingdom and to register their protest the hacktivists conducted a series of cyber attacks on high-profile Saudi Arabian government websites under the banner of operation #OpSaudi and #OpNimr.
One shouldn’t be surprised about this attack as in September 2015 hacktivist targeted top Saudi websites against government’s decision to crucify Mohammed al-Nimr. Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested on the charges of involvement in alleged anti-government activities when he was 17-years old.
The latest cyber attack was responsible for shutting down the official website of Ministry of Defense, the Royal Air Force, Saudi Ministry of Education and the Saudi Press Association, the Saudi Customs Service, the Saudi Mistry of Finances, the Saudi Ombudsman’s Office and the General Passports Service.
A noteworthy point is that the Saudi Defense ministry website was also targeted two days ago and since then it has been offline.
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History:
On 2nd January 2016, the government of Saudi Arabia announced that it had executed 47 prisoners on terrorism charges including a well-known Shia cleric Mr. Sheikh Nimr Al Nimr, who was arrested for conducting protest against the government.
Here are two tweets from Anonymous showing the list of targeted websites:
#Anonymous─► #OpSaudi
OnFIRE
#www.mof.gov.sa
#www.gdp.gov.sa
#www.customs.gov.sa
#www.bog.gov.sa
MOAR─► https://t.co/X7KThF6Gdi— GlobalReVolutionTeam (@GlobalReVoL3) January 3, 2016
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#OpNimr: https://t.co/jn0VY78cGI & https://t.co/pArHl7UTq8 & https://t.co/6ky17QSYkc & https://t.co/vUs5tcrOrQ pic.twitter.com/jgBgOnqe3x
— AnonymousIRC (@CockSec) January 3, 2016
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At the time of publishing this article, some targeted sites were restored while some will still offline.