Georgian opposition party suffers country’s first political cyber attack
By Ana Datiashvili
Friday, April 18
The Christian Democratic Party’s slogan de jour is “We won’t stop existing,” an awkwardly defiant reply to a message left by virtual intruders on their website yesterday.
Yesterday the recently-formed Christian Democratic Party (CDP) unveiled their brand-new party website. But as the page was projected onto a screen for gathered news media, instead of party slogans or top news stories, the home page carried, in English, a single unwelcome message: “STOP YOUR EXISTENCE!”
Politically-mischievous hackers were to blame. The switcheroo came minutes before the website was presented for all to see. CDP campaigners carried on with their event, with ever-unflappable party leader Giorgi Targamadze, a former television news anchor, saying his party was not discouraged.
“We not only have to deal with saboteurs in politics, but also saboteurs on the Internets. But we’re not intimidated. We’ll eventually cope with the Internet sabotage too,” he said.
CDP spokeswoman Baia Gadabadze said the party did not take the message seriously, and did not interrupt their plans.
“This was really funny,” she told the Messenger. “We invited many guests, among them many journalists and politicians, and suddenly we found this message on the screen.”
According to well-known Georgian computer expert Giorgi Beroshvili, it’s the first political cyber attack in Georgia.
“I can say that our hackers are skilled and clever—though compared to Russian hackers, who are world-famous, they are beginners. They are ‘bombing’ websites, like they did today, but this was first political website that [hackers have cracked into],” Beroshvili commented.
As of last night, the CDP’s website (www.targamadze.ge or www.cdm.ge) was in working order, with the party’s news, plans and member biographies still existing.
All your base are belong to us.
Yesterday the recently-formed Christian Democratic Party (CDP) unveiled their brand-new party website. But as the page was projected onto a screen for gathered news media, instead of party slogans or top news stories, the home page carried, in English, a single unwelcome message: “STOP YOUR EXISTENCE!”
Politically-mischievous hackers were to blame. The switcheroo came minutes before the website was presented for all to see. CDP campaigners carried on with their event, with ever-unflappable party leader Giorgi Targamadze, a former television news anchor, saying his party was not discouraged.
“We not only have to deal with saboteurs in politics, but also saboteurs on the Internets. But we’re not intimidated. We’ll eventually cope with the Internet sabotage too,” he said.
CDP spokeswoman Baia Gadabadze said the party did not take the message seriously, and did not interrupt their plans.
“This was really funny,” she told the Messenger. “We invited many guests, among them many journalists and politicians, and suddenly we found this message on the screen.”
According to well-known Georgian computer expert Giorgi Beroshvili, it’s the first political cyber attack in Georgia.
“I can say that our hackers are skilled and clever—though compared to Russian hackers, who are world-famous, they are beginners. They are ‘bombing’ websites, like they did today, but this was first political website that [hackers have cracked into],” Beroshvili commented.
As of last night, the CDP’s website (www.targamadze.ge or www.cdm.ge) was in working order, with the party’s news, plans and member biographies still existing.
All your base are belong to us.