14 DAY TRIAL // The website of the Russian Embassy in Israel has been defaced by Turkish hackers, in one of the latest stages of cyber-war being waged by Turkish hacktivists against Russian authorities.
According to Russian news portal Sputnik, the incident took place on Saturday, January 16, and the hackers left various Turkish, Turkmeni, and Azeri insignia on the defaced website (russianembassy.org.il).
Russian authorities took down the site, which has only recently been resurfaced online after IT personnel tracked down and removed the defacement's origin point.
In a message on Twitter, the Börteçine Siber Tim hacking group from Azerbaijan took credit for the attack.
The cyber-war between Turkey and Russia began after Turkey shot down a Russian aircraft while "allegedly" going through its airspace.
Anonymous began by launching a DDoS attack against Turkey's DNS infrastructure, claiming it was a pushback for this country supporting ISIS fighters in Syria by buying their oil and hospitalizing their injured.
Turkish hackers answered by taking over the Instagram account of the Russian Communications and Mass Media Minister Nikolay Nikiforov.
Later on, Turkish hackers also launched DDoS attacks on the Central Bank of Russia and the Lokomotiv Moskow football club.
Until now, the cyber-war between the two countries has been a one-sided affair, with only Turkish hackers launching attacks against the Russian side. Outside Anonymous, who launched its DDoS as part of its #OpISIS operation, no pure Russian hacking group has retaliated against Turkey.
