DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Hackers mentioned that they had taken down the web sites of Bahrain’s worldwide airport and state information company on Tuesday to mark the 12-year anniversary of an Arab Spring rebellion within the small Gulf nation.
A press release posted on-line by a gaggle calling itself Al-Toufan, or “The Flood” in Arabic, claimed to have hacked the airport web site, which was unavailable for a minimum of a half hour in the course of the day. It additionally claimed to have taken down the web site of the state-run Bahrain Information Company, which was sporadically unavailable.
The group posted photos displaying 504 Gateway Timeout Errors, saying the hacking was “in assist of the revolution of our oppressed folks of Bahrain.”
The identical group seems to have hacked and altered articles on the web site of Akhbar Al Khaleej, a pro-government newspaper in Bahrain, hours earlier. The newspaper’s web site was nonetheless down Tuesday.
There was no rapid remark from authorities.
Feb. 14, 2011, marked the primary day of protests led by Bahrain’s Shiite majority in opposition to the Sunni monarchy. Bahrain finally quashed the rebellion by power with the assist of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, however has continued to see sporadic unrest over time.
Authorities have imprisoned Shiite activists, deported others, stripped lots of of their citizenship and closed down a number one impartial newspaper.
The identical shadowy group of hackers targeted government websites throughout elections held in November that had been boycotted by a banned Shiite opposition group and others.