Spate of hackings hit bank, news agency in Oman

MUSCAT - Hackers took aim at Oman’s official news agency Sunday, mocking the newly-re-elected Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The hackers published a spoof letter to the 77-year-old leader from Oman’s Sultan Qaboos, mimicking a real one sent to Bouteflika following his fourth presidential victory last week.

In the false letter, Bouteflika was described as the "handicapped" president of the "dictatorship" of Algeria, according to newspapers in the Gulf and North Africa.

Bouteflika was jokingly congratulated on a "10th tenure" as a president, in a sarcastic reference to the Algerian leader's 15 years in power, the reports said.

Oman News Agency responded by admitting that its website had been hacked and that "false" reports were posted on the site. It quickly removed the posting.

ONA apologised to its readers and said it would continue to publish stories that agree with the sultanate's policy of "mutual respect with brotherly and friendly states".

The attack came on the same day as a series of smaller scale hacks hit the Sultanate. HSBC and Google.com.om also came under attack, although the sites were not compromised.

According to the Times of Oman, HSBC was offline briefly, but the bank insisted that there was no security breach of any kind to either the personal or business Internet banking platforms.

It was not immediately clear where the ONA breach was related to the other incidents. However, the MENA region seems to be experiencing a general upswing in hacking and hacktivism.

On 13 April, a group of Moroccan hacktivists managed to breach the firewall at a Saudi government agency, in order to protest the ruling family’s crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood. The Moroccan Islamic Union-mail group have told Middle East Eye they are planning further disruptions.

Despite being partially paralysed following a stroke last year, Bouteflika managed to secure 80 percent of the vote. The opposition has cried foul and has suggested that widespread vote rigging may have occurred.

A flare up in violence following the vote, saw 14 Algerian soldiers killed and a dozen wounded in the restive Kabylie region east of Algiers, on Sunday. The threat of further violence has not been ruled out, with minor clashes unfolding for months.