Ministries and government agencies in the Kingdom have been on standby
after receiving warnings of a new wave of hacking against their
websites.
Warnings came after attacks were carried out on the websites of the Ministries of Interior, Finance, Foreign Affairs and Labor during the course of this year.
Government entities received this warning from higher authorities. A telegram from the Ministry of Interior warned government agencies against impending attacks after hacker groups defined their targeted websites.
The Ministry of Interior foiled these attacks by issuing warnings to higher authorities telling them about the groups' intentions, sources said.
Hackers intended to target university and ministry websites and the Ministry of Interior has called on agencies to take precautionary measures against such attacks.
The hackers also planned to target the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, the sources said.
“Tens of hackers joined attempts aimed at disabling the websites of certain government offices. Most of these attacks aimed to block the services of these websites for minutes or hours at a time, depending on the strength of the attack and the website's ability to defend itself. Hacking attempts have failed to achieve serious breaches until now,” said Fayez Al-Barakati, a software expert at the Technical College in Jeddah.
Last April, a local daily published a report stating the Saudi National e-Security Center has conducted a campaign to raise the level of awareness among government employees and facilitate access to special security instructions for government authorities.
Government agencies warned against non-application of public policies and security procedures, which are related to information protection. It called on employees not to click on suspicious links and websites or links that are attached to e-mails in case they contain malicious programs and data theft attempts.
Warnings came after attacks were carried out on the websites of the Ministries of Interior, Finance, Foreign Affairs and Labor during the course of this year.
Government entities received this warning from higher authorities. A telegram from the Ministry of Interior warned government agencies against impending attacks after hacker groups defined their targeted websites.
The Ministry of Interior foiled these attacks by issuing warnings to higher authorities telling them about the groups' intentions, sources said.
Hackers intended to target university and ministry websites and the Ministry of Interior has called on agencies to take precautionary measures against such attacks.
The hackers also planned to target the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, the sources said.
“Tens of hackers joined attempts aimed at disabling the websites of certain government offices. Most of these attacks aimed to block the services of these websites for minutes or hours at a time, depending on the strength of the attack and the website's ability to defend itself. Hacking attempts have failed to achieve serious breaches until now,” said Fayez Al-Barakati, a software expert at the Technical College in Jeddah.
Last April, a local daily published a report stating the Saudi National e-Security Center has conducted a campaign to raise the level of awareness among government employees and facilitate access to special security instructions for government authorities.
Government agencies warned against non-application of public policies and security procedures, which are related to information protection. It called on employees not to click on suspicious links and websites or links that are attached to e-mails in case they contain malicious programs and data theft attempts.
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