Iran’s regime-controlled hackers have broken into a number of websites run by the U.S.government broadcasting organization Voice of America and changed their landing pages. This was confirmed by Iran’s semi-official state news agency, Fars.
The sites were reported to have been restored to normal but at last check the main English language site was still hacked.
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As well as the English version, those in Azeri, Dari, Pashtun, and Urdu languages, carry, or did carry, the image of a machine gun, an Iranian flag and an anti-American statement.
This is an important proof of concept for the idea that any tool a “dissident” group like Anonymous can use can be also be used by a government with the will and the know-how to do so.
According to Voice of America itself:
“VOA executives said the hackers did not penetrate any of the government-funded agency’s computer networks. They did gain entry to an outside computer system that operates a domain name server – a database of Internet addresses available worldwide – and redirected VOA traffic to the hackers’ own site.”
It was done because of VOA’s “anti-Islamic stand,” claimed the Fars Agency.
“The move came in response to the false reports released by the VOA and other websites on the spread and progress of seditious moves in Iran. VOA and its affiliates have long been supporting anti-Islamic Republic groups and sought to provoke unrests in Iran.”
The attack started Monday evening is lasting into today.
This is far from the first time this Iranian group has hacked a site. Last January, they broke into the Chinese search engine Baidu, also redirecting it to a political message. The month before, they broke into Twitter.
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