Middle East News
Egyptian government websites down after hacker threat (Extra)
Jan 26, 2011, 16:17 GMT
Cairo - A collective of anonymous hackers, who in the past have allied themselves with WikiLeaks and disrupted major websites, vowed Wednesday to attack Egyptian government websites if access to certain social networking websites remains restricted.
The group, called Anonops, wrote on Twitter that its members are now targeting the Egyptian Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. 'Reason: internet censorship on Egypt,' wrote the group.
The German Press Agency dpa tried to access the ministry's website, but it appeared to be down Wednesday evening. In the past, the group has disrupted the sites of Mastercard and Visa after companies broke ties to whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
The move by Anonops comes after Twitter was blocked via Egypt's main internet companies, while Facebook was severely crippled, with many unable to access the website.
Both websites were widely used to organize demonstrations in Egypt that sparked after nationwide anti-government protests.
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