ALMATY, JAN. 30 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hackers attacked 21 Kazakh government websites, the ministry of information said, raising concerns over the state’s cyber security.
The sites were attacked on Jan. 28. The ministry blamed the servers that hosted the websites but IT expert said the vulnerability of government websites was a well-known problem.
In a press statement, the Kazakh information ministry said: “These [hacking] cases happened because of an absence of control from the owners of internet resources who did not update the systems in time, proper protection, identification of the incident and signing a contract with unreliable clients.”
Arman Abdrasilov, a Kazakh cyber security expert, said that the hacking had been far wider than just the government websites. He said that, in total, 323 websites had been attacked.
He told The Conway Bulletin that government websites are regularly attacked but that the government covers the hacks.
“Twenty-one sites at once. It says that this is a systematic mistake and links back to the government’s attitude in general. We’ve been raising the [vulnerability] questions for at least three years,” Mr Abdrasilov said.
“Security of the whole system is equal to the security of its weakest part.”
The next day (Jan.31), Nazarbayev talked about cyber security threats in his annual state-of-the-nation address. He ordered security services to boost their various defences.
The hacked websites included the north Kazakhstan regional government website and the natural resources department in the Almaty city government.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)
