Hackers hit Kenya, Burundi google sites
What you need to know:
- Pakistani Leets is the group that carried out a hack and deface on Israeli servers of Skype, Microsoft, MSN, Live, Amazon and MasterCard in November 2012.
Kenya and Burundi's Google websites were on Saturday hacked.
For several hours, a visit to www.google.co.ke and www.google.bi produced music, red and green text against a black background, instead of the usual Google features that include a doodle and search box.
A group calling itself Pakistani Leets claimed responsibility for the act through messages on the pages.
“[!] Struck by 1337, Google Kenya Has been STAMPED by PAKISTANI LEETS, We are TeaM MADLEETS,” the note on www.google.co.ke read alongside supposed online names of some of the people who carried out the attack.
Twitter users aired their views about the hack on the social media website.
“as-hostage-situation-continues-at-westgate-mall-google-kenya-hacked-by-pakistani-group”, Joseph Kabuku tweeted.
“#TrueStory about Google Kenya hacked and turned into a music site. Sounds funny but it's true,” Bidanya Barasa said.
While someone using the name esther #FreeChelsea wrote:
“Google Kenya and Google Burundi hacked and defaced by Team Madleets.…”
And Bernard Mwakhulegwa asked:
“has #google kenya been hacked??? just seen a scary screen….”
Pakistani Leets is the group that carried out a hack and deface on Israeli servers of Skype, Microsoft, MSN, Live, Amazon and MasterCard in November 2012.
It left a message expressing anger against the Middle East country and its air strikes on the people of Palestine.
This is the second time Google Kenya has been a victim of a cyber attack.
In April, the website was compromised, with a hacker who identified himself as TiGER-M@TE from Bangaldesh claiming responsibility.
The Google Kenya page, which is now functioning, is the country's third most-visited online page, according to Alexa, a global web metrics site.
