14 DAY TRIAL // A hacker has managed to deface the websites of the NIC.LY registry and the country's main Internet service provider, Libya Telecom & Technology (LTT).
People who tried to access the nic.ly and ltt.ly websites over the weekend were greeted by a page showing the flag of the Lybian opposition fighters and a message reading "Hacked By Electr0n."
The page also read "bye bye Qadaffi" followed by Feb 17, the date of the Libyan "Day of Rage" which is considered the start of the revolution.
There is no reason to believe at the moment that the hacker responsible for the defacements is tied to the Anonymous movement which has been known to support protests in the Arab world by hacking into websites.
The defacement of the NIC.LY website does not inspire much confidence into the registry sponsored by Libya's General Post and Telecommunications Company.
The most popular URL shortening service, bit.ly uses the .ly domain extension, but the company previously explained that even if the .ly registry server goes down, it will not affect its service in the short term.
The website of the Libya Telecom & Technology, ltt.ly, was also defaced, but has since been restored unlike nic.ly which remains affected at the time of writing this article.
For the past several months, the only Internet routes out of Libya were handled by LTT, but Internet access was unavailable for civilians. According to reports, for the past several days those routes have fluctuated, especially since the beginning of Operation "Mermaid Dawn," the opposition's assault on Tripoli.
It's not known why, but LTT has restored Internet access for residents, even if only intermittently. It's not clear if the opposition forces had any influence or if this was the sole decision of LTT.
