Egyptian and Algerian Internet aficionados are fighting an online war, going back and forth in disrupting a number of each respective nations' websites. The battle appears to be over support of both countries national football teams as they battle it out for a place in the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. An Algerian hacker, who called himself “KADER11000,” allegedly infiltrated the official websites of President Hosni Mubarak and the government-owned Al-Ahram newspaper, causing major disruptions on Thursday last week. Egypt and Algeria are in the same group vying for a berth in the world's most prestigious football tournament. The Algerians lead the group, but Egypt is an extreme long shot to make the tournament. The Algerian hacker was able to get into the coding on the front page of the president's website, modifying it to read: “In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful, I am KADER11000 Algerian hacker. I have successfully hacked the websites of the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram as a response to any violation of the rights of my country and Al-Shorouk newspaper.” He added that it was his “gift” to Egypt after Egyptian hackers had attacked the Algerian newspaper. He claims to have successfully destroyed the server of the president's website. Last Tuesday, Egyptian Internet pirates launched a cyber attack on a chat forum of the Algerian publication over the newspaper's unwavering support for their national football team. The Egyptians alleged “unpro In one of the comments on the Algerian newspaper's site, an Egyptian wrote that the, “Algerian team should be disqualified” from its World Cup run. Al-Shorouk Al-Youmi newspaper is the exclusive media sponsor for the Algerian national squad and has been adamant over its support for the team as it attempts to participate in its third finals next year. The Egyptian newspaper, Al-Shorouk, also said that attacks were made by Algerians against the military production and information ministries. “We are working to solve these problems and are hopeful that it will not occur again,” a Ministry of Information official told Al-Masry Al-Youm on Tuesday morning. Egypt has been hit hard by a number of recent Internet attacks. In July, Alexandria University was hacked by an unknown assailant who left a long message complaining about the university's undisciplined spending and favoritism. Al-Azhar also came under attack the same month, when an attacker penetrated their coding and left a message. Both the Alexandria University and Al-Azhar messages were removed from the websites within a few hours.
