14 DAY TRIAL // On September 16, Mexico celebrates its Independence Day. Hacktivists from the Ciber Protesta Mexicana group took the opportunity to protest against the country’s government by breaching and defacing a number of websites.
A handful of the 18 websites targeted by the hackers belong to the Mexican government, including the Federal Congress’s TV (canaldelcongreso.gob.mx), town of Macuspana (macuspana.gob.mx), a subdomain of Instituto Tecnologico de La Paz (itlp.edu.mx), and a site owned by a political party.
“As we saw, Mexico is undergoing a series of changes, changes that will get us nothing new. We will be in the same situation as before, as the PRI (a political party) always imposed a regime, a regime of violence, links to crime, fraud,” reads a translation of their message.
They also blame Mexico’s president for the drug wars, unemployment levels, high gasoline prices, and for intervening in the validation of the elections that took place on July 1.
They highlight the fact that the people shouldn’t be proud of their country because they don’t have economic stability, education, access to information, or a proper medical system.
“This is a peaceful cyber protest. We are not and never will be anonymous. We, Ciber Protesta Mexicana, we're not criminals, we are students, workers, productive people to Mexico that we're tired and we seek a means of expressing our disagreements,” they stated.
“Mexico!!! I want to see you UNITED, not defeated,” they concluded.
Some of the affected organizations have started restoring their websites, but a few of the affected pages still display the message published by the hackers.
Hacktivists often choose to protest against governments on the country’s Independence Day. Back in June, hackers from the Philippines pulled a similar stunt.
They defaced several Filipino government websites to protest against a cyber-legislation.