Muhammad Said Al-Zahrani Okaz/Saudi Gazette TAIF – A Saudi hacker, who wanted to highlight the vulnerabilities and the weak security of certain government websites, hacked 23 government websites in two hours on Saturday dawn as proof of the poor protection of the sites. The websites the hacker hacked into included educational, health, sports, municipal and traffic websites, among others. In his message, he justified the hacking as necessary due to the government websites ignoring his messages on an imminent attack. The hacker (Cyber_Emotion) announced through his account on Twitter that he targeted government websites with weak security. He said the hacking was under the title “From us and not from others”. The hacker said he did not harm any of the data of the hacked government websites. He said he would prevent entry into the websites until security measures are carried out. The websites he announced he had hacked in two hours included: Al-Rawda Education Office, Al-Qunfudha City Health Program, Meisan Municipality, social development center in Al-Aflaj governorate, Al-Mahani municipality, Al-Ghaat municipality, the education office in Al-Birk, Abqaiq education office portal, Asir traffic department, education values website, giftedness administration, municipal council, King Fahd Hospital, student activity administration portal in Riyadh, Prince Saud Bin Juluwi Hospital in Al-Ahsa, Saudi Federation for the Deaf, education office in Al-Sulayyil, directorate of health affairs in Taif, student activity administration in Taif, municipal council in Turaif, official website of the municipal council in Umluj and Umluj municipality. The hacker said he has not touched any of the data. What is required is increased security only. He said he did not want to harm anyone. “All we wanted is to protect government websites,” he said. Some authorities have confirmed that they have managed to restore their websites after the Saturday dawn hacking. Okaz has learned from sources that the majority of government administrations function on external receivers and hosting with weak security, due to their low cost. Some of them cost just SR800 per year. The sources said many of the ministries have strong protection for their websites. Some of the ministries ask their administrations to connect their websites through the ministry's portal. Sometimes this is not implemented by the administrations, as they ignore the ministry's instructions. These include subsidiary municipalities, municipal councils, educational websites and others belonging to the ministry of health.
