CAIRO: 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 websites of President Hosni Mubarak and the government-owned Al Ahram newspaper, causing major disruptions last month. The Egyptian daily reported that the “devastating intrusion of the websites of the Egyptian Presidency and the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram was a legitimate act of retaliation†after Egyptian Internet pirates attacked an Algerian newspaper, Elshorouk Al Youmi, earlier in the week by bombarding the chat forum with too many comments after the publication had praised Algeria’s World Cup efforts. Egypt and Algeria are in the same group vying for a berth in the world’s most prestigious football tournament. Their next match, on November 14, is key to each nation’s hopes of securing a spot in South African next summer. Egypt must win by at least two goals to force a playoff. 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 Eshorouk 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. Before the Algerian hacker infiltrated the Egyptian websites, Egyptian Internet pirates launched a cyber “attack†on a chat forum of the Algerian publication over the newspapers unwavering support for their national football team. The Egyptians alleged “unpro fessional†support for their rivals’ national squad, the newspaper reported in its Friday edition. The shear number of posts caused the forum to be temporarily suspended in order to liquidate the traffic. 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. Eshorouk 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, El-Shorouk, also said that attacks were made by Algerians against the military production and information ministries. Loopholes, known as IIS, allow the hackers to access Egyptian ministry websites, but the ministry of information has said it will bolster its efforts to prevent further intrusions. “We are working to solve these problems and are hopeful that it will not occur again,†a ministry official said after the news broke. 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 detailed message about the expenditure of the university. Al-Azhar also came under attack the same month, where briefly one morning an attacker penetrated their coding and left a message. It was brought under control hours later, without much damage. BM
