A group of hackers have taken over the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM)’s official Facebook page on Monday (13th July) afternoon.
The hackers posted a series of messages on the page, expressing their support for the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group. They also changed the profile picture to an image of an eye and the cover photo to a picture of a gunman waving the Islamic State flag. The profile picture came with words in Arabic including “Allah” and “Muhammad” while the text written on the cover photo reads “Khilafah has returned”, seemingly hinting at the return of the caliphate.
The hackers showed their support for the IS by posting a picture of militants armed with weapons. The photo came with the caption: “VIVA ISLAMIC STATE!”
They also announced their identities in another Facebook post:
We are : Mauritania Attacker – AnonxoxTn – StingerByte – Mr.Domoz – Th3Falcon – HusseiN98D – Dr’SaMiM-008 – n0name-haxor – hAxOr tr0jAn – BillGate – Mr.Ajword – Extazy007 – Psyco_Hacker – Black Cracker – Virusa Worm – Donnazmi – X-Wanted – De_Reb0rNz – Tunisian Cracker – L’APoca-Dz – Psyf3r – Vortex.
The post was followed with another update that simply reads “#Anonghost was here.” According to The Star Online, AnonGHost is a group of pro-Palestinian hackers who have, among other things, defaced a United Nations (UN) website. However, they denied links to the infamous Internet group Anonymous, clarifying that they did not share the same goals or the latter group’s technical prowess.
They wrote:
AnonGhost is different from Anonymous, we don’t have the same goal and don’t have the same level in hacking. We are the sound of the forgotten people, the freedom fighter in the cyberworld and our main target is Sionisme and israhell, if you are asking why your website got hacked by us, its basically because we want to share our message and show the world who we are, we are not looking for fame but we have a goal to achieve we supporte all hackers teams and we supporte all the freedom mouvement in the world. \!/
They also recently updated the Facebook page by stating that they can’t wait for Prime Minister Najib Razak to resign.
Take a look at all their Facebook posts in the gallery below:
PDRM acknowledged the attack, announcing on its Twitter account shortly after the messages began appearing on Facebook.
They said:
Dimaklumkan bhw laman FB rasmi PDRM telah digodam oleh pihak yg X B'TANGGUNGJAWAB. Sebarang maklumat yg dikeluarkn slps ini TIDAK BENAR. TK
— Polis Diraja M'sia (@PDRMsia) July 13, 2015
Translation (via The Malay Mail Online):
Please be informed that the official PDRM Facebook page has been hacked by irresponsible parties. Any information issued forthwith is false. Thank you.
In recent months, PDRM has arrested several individuals with links to said terrorist group. A total of 2 IS-linked Malaysians were arrested last week for plotting acts of terrorism in the Klang Valley. Another 17 individuals were also arrested in early April for secretly plotting to kidnap high profile-figures, to attack places in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and the Klang Valley. A total of 12 suspected militants were also arrested in late April as they were caught planning to test explosives in a Hulu Langat jungle. The bomb-making materials were also seized during the arrest.
This wasn’t the first time an official Facebook page was hacked by cyber caliphate as the official website of Malaysia Airlines Systems Bhd (MAS) was also hacked by 2 hacking groups known as “Lizard Squad” and “UGNazi” earlier in January this year.
It is still unclear why PDRM was targeted, but concern has been rising in Malaysia after scores of its citizens were lured to the IS cause in the Middle East.
UPDATE (13th July, 4:41PM):
At the time of writing, the Facebook page is no longer under the hackers’ control.
All the Facebook statuses posted by the hackers have been deleted and the profile picture has been reverted to the image of police emblem.
More to come as the story unfolds.
Sources: The Malay Mail Online, The Star Online
