Coordinated Cyber-Attacks known as #OpQatar Terrorizes Qatar Once Again

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About Cyber-Attacks
Coordinated Cyber-Attacks known as OpQatar
Terrorizes Qatar Once Again
The ongoing Gulf feud between the small but rich
country of Qatar versus its biggest friends and
neighbouring countries of Saudi Arabia, UAE,
Egypt and Bahrain continued their year-long
conflict with more cyber-attacks in mind.
OpQatar Hacks are targeting and leaking
sensitive information from their citizens and
agencies once again.
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Read More About
Coordinated Cyber-Attacks known as OpQatar
Terrorizes Qatar Once Again
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Cyber-Attacks Hacking

1. OpQatar reached mainstream media on year 2013,
   but its first related major instance of hacking
   was recorded last May 2017, when Qatar News
   Agency's website was anonymously hacked and
   slandered.
2. The hackers posted a quote that they attributed
   to Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Qatar's
   current emir, which was about his complaint to US
   Foreign Policy and his alleged support of Islamic
   extremist groups.
3. Qatar denied its validity afterwards and related
   the whole incident to hackers backed by UAE
   government, which they deny as well.

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Hacking

• Another targeted hacking was reported on
  September of last year, when Qatar state website
  was hacked by Anonymous - a secret decentralized
  hacktivist organization.
• They outrightly mentioned the attack coming from
  Saudi Arabia, which leads to conclude that the
  motivation for the attack was likely due to
  disputes between Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

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About Hacking

• Fast forward to this year and it appears that
  OpQatar related hacks are even stronger and more
  coordinated than ever.
• Just this month, anonymous hackers managed to
  leak sensitive documents and images from Qatar
  Customs to public Internet.
• They have also penetrated legitimate markets in
  Qatar and leaked its rules and relationships with
  regard to social sites and their government.
• Moreover, a great number of leaked private IDs
  and documentations were released by several
  anonymous hackers - all Qatari citizens.

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Read Hacking

• Hacking incidents such as these will surely
  continue for the coming weeks, as warned by one
  of the anonymous hackers in one of their tweets.
• Whether living inside the State of Qatar or not,
  OpQatar proves how we take Cyber Security for
  granted.
• Hackers only need to get creative and they can
  bypass a lot of tried and tested defenses.
• Ideally all cyber defenses should continually be
  put to the test, and once in a while adapt a
  hacker's mindset.

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Coordinated Cyber-Attacks known as OpQatar
Terrorizes Qatar Once Again

• But in actuality, nothing is perpetually
  invulnerable these days, and so organizations
  that highly value information security should
  devote a lot of their resources and effort
  designing ways to mitigate losses if a security
  breach happens.

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