The websites of Radar, Southern News and Voice of Šumadija are not functioning at all as of Thursday morning. Apparently, it is a hacker attack on the server where all three sites are located
The website of the weekly Radar, as well as the regional portal Juzne vesti from Niš, as well as the portal Glas Šumadije, are the targets of hacker attacks. All three sites are hosted on the same server which is under constant load hacker attacks.
South news since last Friday has been met with attacks on part of the infrastructure where the portal server is located. Portal of the weekly “Radar” has also been facing difficult work since last Friday due to continuous attacks on the servers that “host” this portal, and the site has practically been inaccessible since Wednesday evening.
Director of Southern News Vitomir Ognjanović told Vreme that the situation is currently much better than it was, but that they are still very cautious when it comes to hacker attacks.
“At the moment, the situation is a little better than it was on Thursday morning, a good part of the hacker traffic is blocked, but there are still occasional interruptions and difficulties. The site itself loads much slower, the consequences are visible, but as I said, it is good at the moment, but we are on our guard,” says Ognjanović.
Hacker attacks on the Southern News portal began on Friday, February 13, and have been ongoing for almost a week. Ognjanović points out that the attacks are more intense this week.
“On Friday, February 13, the first attacks began, there were also over the weekend, but not with any excessive intensity. However, from Monday the whole situation escalated, then more and more frequent interruptions began, while this morning was the most difficult. From six in the morning, large attacks began and even greater problems at work,” says Ognjanović.
“All three portals on the server have difficulty working, so the publication has been transferred to other portals. We also use social networks to publish important information that cannot be published on the site at the moment”, concluded Ognjanović for “Vreme”.
Regime attack on the media?
The editors of the three mentioned media suspect that this is not a coincidence and note that this is the most serious hacker attack to date. It should be noted that all three portals report critically on the authorities in Serbia.
The editor-in-chief of Juzni Vesti, Milan Zirojević, tells Danas that it seems to him that the regime is carrying out an exercise of total attack on the media that bothers them, regardless of whether they are from the United Group or local and regional media.
“During that time, circles close to the SNS are establishing new portals in Serbia. Everything seems to be part of a wider operation to prepare for the elections and deal with those media that do not do propaganda for them, but work professionally and in the public interest,” says the editor of Southern News.
Milana Pejić, the editor of the Radar weekly portal, states that the team told them that they located the attack coming from China and the Seychelles, but that this does not necessarily mean that it is really coming from there, it is possible that it is a mask.
“What distinguishes this attack from the previous ones is that it is very strong, that it is difficult to defend against it and that it is very expensive. And not only our site was attacked, but the server that hosts several sites, among others Glas Šumadije and Južne vesti, and as far as I am informed, their sites are not working either since this morning,” explains Pejić.
The chief and responsible editor of Glas Šumadija, Jovanka Nikolić, suspects that the attack was targeted with intent, because the server that was attacked contains two other media outlets that are independent, professional and report critically on the government.
“It is impossible that this is a coincidence and I am sure that someone from the government is behind this attack. My opinion is that this is some kind of rehearsal before the upcoming elections. The voice of Šumadija has great influence among the people of Kragujevac and that is why we are a thorn in the side of the regime,” says Nikolić.
Source: Vreme
