Algerian web pirates 2,000 miles astray in siege of Belvoir Castle
This is very funny, with an underlying seriousness. From The Telegraph
One of Britain's best-known castles fell victim to a band of hapless Middle-Eastern "cyber-pirates" last week after they mistook it for a Crusader fortress of the same name more than 2,000 miles away. Belvoir Castle, the family seat of the 11th Duke of Rutland, was mistakenly targeted by a subversive group of Algerian hackers who confused its website with that of Belvoir Fortress in Israel.
The hackers hijacked the castle's homepage and replaced images of the stately home nestled in rolling Leicestershire countryside with a black page displaying the Algerian flag and a tirade against the Jewish state in Arabic.
Belvoir Fortress became a stronghold of the Christian military order of the Knights Hospitaller in 1168, when it was erected to fend off Muslim forces attacking the Kingdom of Jerusalem from the east. It returned to Muslim control in the 13th Century, but was abandoned after a bloody assault by Israeli forces on the surrounding village of Kawkab al-Hawa in 1948.
By contrast, Belvoir Castle was a Royalist stronghold in the English Civil War and now holds an annual teddy bears' picnic in its 15,000-acre gardens.
An Algerian subversive group called the Dz-SeC claimed responsibility for the cyber attack, which occurred on Friday afternoon, writing in Arabic on the castle's website: "The cause of this hack is Israel's presence." The message added: "Internet law does not protect the ignorant. Thank you to all the pirates of Algeria."
A spokeswoman for the castle said: "We've nothing to do with the Middle-East. I just help to organise the teddy bears' picnic."
But Madam Infidel, are any of those bears named Mohammed? Because if they are . . .
Posted on 09/01/2010 4:46 AM by Esmerelda Weatherwax
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