By Staff Reporter
June 24, 2020 (Ezega.com) -- Ethiopia has accused Egypt of conducting state-backed cyberattacks against its key institutions in an attempt to disrupt economic and political activities.
The Ethiopian Intelligence office said Egypt based hackers namely Cyber Hopes Group, Anubis Hacker, and Security bypass conducted a coordinated attack to disrupt critical infrastructure activities including the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project.
The Information Networks Security Agency (INSA) in a statement said it foiled all the attempted attacks particularly those which were conducted on June 17, 19, 20, and 21, 2020 by Egypt backed hackers.
The attackers were believed to have been working on behalf of the Egyptian government, an indictment the Ethiopian government has made for the first time against the North African nation.
INSA claimed the cyber attackers made longtime preparations and tried to hack websites of 13 public and four non-governmental organizations. The agency did not mention if the hackers were successful in hacking some activities.
The cyberattacks targeted ICT infrastructures and websites of public service institutions, security organizations, and other public and private institutions.
“Cyber Hopes Group, Anubis Hacker and Security Bypass have claimed responsibility for attempting the attacks and admitted that their objective was posing burdens on Ethiopia related the water filling of the Grand Renaissance Dam,” the agency said
According to the agency, the attack would have posed complicated economic, political and psychological pressures in the country if the agency had failed to combat the attempted assail,
The agency called upon institutions and individuals to check the security of their webs especially before they use et. domain to their addresses.
The agency further extended gratitude to Ethio-telecom and Innovation and Technology Ministry for their support to its endeavors in foiling the cyber attacks.
The agency claimed it has foiled close to 791 cyber-attacks against key institutions and infrastructure was among the targets of the attacks. The attacks mainly involve websites and key infrastructure facilities
Meanwhile, Ethiopia has restated its position on its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) through a letter addressed to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Ethiopia’s confirmation came after Egypt called the UNSC for the second time to intervene in the trilateral negotiations on GERD.
In its letter to the UNSC, Ethiopia reiterated that the Grand Renaissance Dam is not a threat to peace and security but strengthens regional cooperation.
Ethiopia expressed concern over Egypt’s second request to the UNSC after the north African nation boycotted the trilateral talks last week.
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