The Tribune

A TUNISIAN Islamist “activist group” called the Fallaga Team was responsible for hacking two government websites on Wednesday, the Ministry of Tourism revealed yesterday.

Out of caution, all government websites have been checked for possible breaches and “reinforced against potential vulnerabilities by the implementation of software patching,” a statement from the ministry added.

As part of its long-term strategy, the government intends to convene a meeting of industry experts to review the government’s websites to find the best safeguards to protect future attacks.

The statement provides some insight into revelations first made by Prime Minister Perry Christie on the floor of the House of Assembly on Wednesday. Mr Christie initially told parliamentarians that the Ministry of Tourism’s

website had been hacked, an incident which Mr Christie had said poses enormous national security implications for the country.

Yesterday, the ministry revealed that two websites had been compromised: www.bahamas.com and www.bahamasfilm.com.

According to the statement, the hacks occurred on Wednesday morning.

“All defaced sections of the government-owned websites were quickly removed and a corrected version redeployed and with the restoration of all compromised pages, all affected websites are now back to normal modes of operation,” the ministry said.

“The evidence collected has been turned over to the relevant local authorities and the matter is currently under active investigation.

“As a short-term strategy and in an abundance of caution, all government websites have been checked for possible breaches, safeguarded and reinforced against potential vulnerabilities by the implementation of software patching.

“As a long term strategy and being cognizant of the fact that we live in an era where cyber-terrorism poses clear and present dangers to our national security, the government of the Bahamas will convene a meeting of industry experts to review the entire government owned Internet related infrastructure with a view to determining what, if any, additional measures can be taken to deliver the strongest possible cyber-security protocol.”

The ministry said the government intends to create a permanent public/private sector committee that will meet regularly, conduct regular audits of public Internet infrastructure and advise the government on matters of cyber-security so as to inform public policy going forward.

Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe explained how the Internet attacks can be used to compromise online networks.

“We know that with today’s increasingly sophisticated malware, simply navigating to a compromised website or opening a document can unleash a whole slew of malware onto a user’s computer and can shut down entire networks, causing serious disruptions to government’s operations, to national trade and commerce and can sometimes cause serious harm to a country’s international reputation,” Mr Wilchcombe said.

“As a consequence, hackers have special or invasive means of identifying weak spots for nefarious purposes. This matter has been given serious attention and we will spare no effort in protecting and safeguarding these valuable assets and as demonstrated this morning, we are ready with an immediate fix as we did yesterday morning.”

In the House of Assembly Wednesday, Mr Christie said a similar hacking incident occurred in another Caribbean country.

Although he did not name the country, international reports have noted that the government website of St Vincent and the Grenadines was hacked earlier this month by a purported “Islamic State.”

According to I-Witness News (IWN), a message was posted on the St Vincent government’s website claiming that an “Islamist rebel group” had hacked the site. “Visitors to the website were greeted by a message saying ‘Hacked by Moroccanwolf – Islamic State’ and a photo of a man firing a machine gun from the back of a pick up truck,” IWN reported.