Cyberattack targeting Bangladesh government websites leaves message demanding quota reform

Most websites of the Bangladesh government, including those of the Prime Minister’s Office or PMO and the president’s office Bangabhaban, have been shut down in a major cyberattack purportedly in support of protests against quotas in government jobs.

State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak told bdnews24.com at midnight on Tuesday that five government websites have been hacked.

The website of the Prime Minister's Office, among others, was taken down at midnight Tuesday.

He claimed they have proof that the assault was carried out from a foreign country, but did not name any.  

“Some group did this planned this,” he had said, “We are trying to retrieve these sites.”
 
The web sites were operating as normal on Wednesday morning.

Palak also said there have been attempts to hack the National Portal for quite a few days. 

Google search result for the education ministry on Tuesday midnight showed ‘Hacked by Bangladesh’.

A cache of the page showed a message demanding reforms to the quota system in government jobs.

This comes amid protests by students and jobseekers for quota reform.

The outage has hit websites of most of the ministries, including those of home, agriculture, finance, foreign affairs, housing and public works, land, planning, local government, commerce, road transport and bridges, and defence.

A video posted on Facebook showed the moments when the website of Survey of Bangladesh department was taken down by the hackers.

The hackers launched the cyberattack around 11pm.

The affected sites were still down after midnight, but the message was removed.

According to ‘Zone-H’, an archive of hacked websites, four Bangladesh government websites were attacked.

The message posted on the hacked websites also showed a photo, believed to be of a lone quota reform protester waving the national flag amid teargas.

The protesters fought running battles with police and the ruling Awami League’s student affiliate Bangladesh Chhatra League on the Dhaka University campus overnight after being chased away from the busy Shahbagh intersection on Sunday evening. Clashes also took place in other universities as the protests spread.

After a meeting with the government on Monday, the demonstrators said they postponed the programmes until May 7.

But hours before the cyberattack on Tuesday, they said they would press on with the demonstrations when many of them did not agree with the decision to halt the programmes.