Narayan AmmachchiThe Bahamas government says it is reviewing its entire Internet infrastructure after an Islamist group allegedly hacked several of its official websites.
The news comes barely a month after St Vincent complained that a radical Islamist group affiliated to Islamic State (IS) hacked some of its sites.
All the hacked sites have now been restored, Prime Minister Perry G. Christie told parliament. Christie did not blame the Islamic State but accused a Tunisian Islamist group, known as Fallaga Team, of defacing the government sites.
The hacked sites include www.bahamas.com, www.bahamasfilm.com as well as the site of the country’s tourism ministry.
“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 government said in a statement.
To prevent similar hacks in the future, government has set up a committee of industry experts to review the country’s entire Internet infrastructure.
“All government websites have been checked for possible breaches, safeguarded and reinforced against potential vulnerabilities by the implementation of software patching,” added the government statement.
The committee, comprised of technology experts from both the public and private sectors, will meet regularly and help the government formulate policies with respect to cyber security.
“This matter has been given serious attention and we will spare no effort in protecting and safeguarding these valuable assets,” stated the country’s Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe.
Another committee, made up of experts including a retired FBI cyber security agent, is said to be preparing to train Bahamian officials in ethical hacking in order to enable them to intercept and block such security threats quickly.
Add comment