RedHack discloses IDs of foreign diplomats in Turkey

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

The foreign ministry site after it was defaced by RedHack.









The RedHack group this morning disclosed the identities of hundreds of foreign bureaucrats and diplomats.The group had announced yesterday that they were about to reveal "something big," saying that the hacking had already been done and that the authorities could do nothing about it.Today, the group provided a link to a Dropbox file-sharing address, which contained images of the identity cards the Turkish Foreign Ministry has issued for foreign diplomats working in Turkey "Those who are revealed should get mad at the Foreign Ministry, not us," RedHack said on its Twitter account.The file dump did not include the ID cards given to the children of foreign personnel. "These are only a part of the IDs we have obtained," the group said.The hacking was apparently a bid to show the vulnerability of sensitive documents to outside interference, as RedHack also tweeted: "Did [the Foreign Ministry] issue IDs to foreign personnel for someone to come and disclose them? They should look at their computers instead of looking at Syria."Socialist group RedHack brought down the Turkish Foreign Ministry website this morning, replacing its contents with pictures showing the Turkish prime minister embracing former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.The group also defaced the web page "https://public.mfa.gov.tr/" by replacing the page's original contents with two large pictures, one showing Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan embracing killed Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, and another showing him embracing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.A title was placed above the pictures, reading: "Ministry of War and Slavery, not Foreign Affairs." A caption for the pictures read: "Brothers yesterday, enemies today."A message was also placed under the pictures, which condemned what it called "imperialist scenarios to pit brotherly peoples against each other ... Those who can not resolve conflicts within their homeland are meddling in other countries' problems, seeing this as a necessity of being a 'great state,'" the message read."If you want war so much, put on your boots and fight. We do not have to die for you just because you were elected by a majority vote," the message, directed at Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) said.A message directed at Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said, "We have obtained all documents at the ministry portal, we will disclose them all. The documents will prove how weak you are in reality and will show that your bullying is merely hot air."RedHack also placed a warning in its message, saying it would be pressurizing the Foreign Ministry as long as "it does not give up Pennsylvania-based and [Fethullah Gülen's religious] community-dictated foreign policies."The group dedicated the hacking to the victims of the Sivas Massacre, which was commemorated on its 19th anniversary yesterday. A message in English was also placed on the site, which read: "19 years ago on 2nd July, authors, intellectuals and hotel workers were burned alive in Madımak Hotel in Sivas by mob of radical bigots. The responsible individuals have never been brought to justice."The web content uploaded by RedHack was removed by the Foreign Ministry, but the page was not available for viewing this morning.