14 DAY TRIAL // News network Al Jazeera is working hard to fend off a massive cyberattack as actors are trying to hack the Qatari-owned news organization, claims its website and broader media network.
According to an official statement, Al Jazeera is currently "undergoing systematic and continual hacking attempts."
"These attempts are gaining intensity and taking various forms. However, the platforms have not been compromised," said the company in a statement. Al Jazeera's social media accounts have also been targeted, but there's no clue at the moment that they've been compromised.
Security researchers observed the issue and claim the attack extends as far as DNS servers in the United States, indicating a rather broad network failure for Al Jazeera. Researchers discovered that a third nameserver for Al Jazeera is struggling to respond to requests despite the host being up, which could back up the claim that the network is under attack. However, it is unclear at this point if this is a DDoS attack or another type of attack targeting the news outlet.
A possible link to another attack in Qatar
Al Jazeera is owned by the Qatar government, which makes the attack that much more suspicious, given the massive hack the Qatar News Agency was a victim of a couple of weeks ago. Then, attackers managed to easily get access to the agency's entire network and social media accounts, managing to plant a false statement of the Emir that caused a crisis in the area. This led to numerous countries in the zone calling back their ambassadors, which is a massive diplomatic incident.
Furthermore, several countries have also stopped allowing flights towards Qatar, while Qatar itself has limited access to its air space.
Hopefully, we'll find out more regarding the attack Al Jazeera is currently under soon enough and maybe figure out if its purpose is just to disrupt, or if there's more to it.