Group called 'Raise Your Voice' hacks Lebanon websites

A variety of Lebanese websites, mainly government-related, were hacked overnight by a group calling itself “Raise Your Voice,” demanding better living conditions. Several ministry websites – those of Foreign Affairs, Justice and Energy – were still inaccessible Tuesday and viewers trying to open the sites are greeted by a message addressed to the government from “Raise Your Voice,” which calls for a popular movement by people to demand their rights. “We are RYV, short for Raise Your Voice, and we are simply a group of people who could not bear sitting in silence, watching all the crimes and injustice going on in Lebanon. We will not be silenced and brainwashed by your media. We will not stop until the Lebanese people mobilize, demand their rights, and earn them,” part of the message said. The websites of State Security, ISF, Customs and the Banking Control Commission of Lebanon were also hacked. “We will not stop until the standards of living are raised to where they should be in Lebanon. We will not stop until this government's self-made problems are solved, like the power shortage, water shortage, rise in gas prices and rise in food product prices. We are RYV, expect us to break the silence, whether in the streets or on the Internet. Silence is a crime,” the message ends. The virtual attack appears to have targeted mainly the homepages of the affected sites. Government websites were not alone in being targeted. The website of the National News Agency (NNA) was hacked overnight, as was that of MTV television station. The NNA was back online at around 10.20 a.m. but The MTV website remains closed. Head of the news department at MTV, Ghayas Yazbek, said technicians were still working to restore the website to its formal state and confirmed “Raise Your Voice” was behind the attack. “They called me early this morning and informed me of the hacking ... our technicians are still working on it,” he told The Daily Star.