WikiLeaks Website Hacked and Defaced By OurMine
The WikiLeaks website looks to have been hacked and defaced by a group calling themselves "OurMine," a notorious hacker ring that has targeted social media accounts and sites of tech companies, media groups and celebrities.
Instead of the usual cards showing WikiLeaks news, visitors of the WikiLeaks.org website were greeted instead by a stark white-on-black message on Thursday morning, Aug. 31. Over and under a large red and white banner that reads "# OURMINE #" were a few messages left by the alleged hacking group for WikiLeaks administrators.
"Hacked by Ourmine! Your Security is Low," the message read, intermixed with other characters. ""Hi, it's OurMine (Security Group), don't worry we are just testing your.... blablablab, oh wait, this is not a security test! Wikileaks, remember when you challenged us to hack you?" the text continued, taunting WikiLeaks security as quoted by The Verge.
The text went on to remind Anonymous, a group connected to Wikileaks, about an attempt allegedly made earlier to "dox," or release personal information about OurMine. "There we go! One group beat you all! #WikileaksHack lets get it trending on twitter!" the message triumphantly added.
At one point, visitors were instead shown a message that said "Account Suspended," referring to WikiLeaks' account with their hosting provider. The site is back online in its normal state as of this time. The whistleblower group did not respond to request for comments on the incident for now.
OurMine has been busy targeting tech CEOs since last year, breaking into Google chief Sundar Pichai's Quora account last year. Mark Zuckerberg's Pinterest and Twitter accounts also fell victim to the hacking group earlier.
One of their latest victims is HBO, who have been having problems with yet another hacker group. OurMine wrested away the control of the network's social media accounts two weeks ago.
