The Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Kamal al-Jabri, assured his own personal interest, as well as that of his ministry, to the discovery and prosecution of the individuals responsible for the virus attack upon the News Yemen website, which has disrupted service since the first day of Eid al-Adha.
An emergency meeting to discuss the implications of the attack was recently held. Minister Kamal al-Jabri, as well as Nabil al-Sofi, the chief editor of News Yemen, Amer Hazz'a, the General Manger of the Internet Department, and several other administrative officials were in attendance.
The Ministry of Communications is the only body able to determine who was responsible for what happened, al-Sofi said. By following the initial information obtained from the company's web host, the IP address used to send the virus may be discovered. Through the IP address, the computer and telephone number of the culprit may be uncovered.
Kamal al-Jabri confirmed that the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is ready to seek international expertise to uncover the perpetrator. "If there is any involvement of any employee in the ministry in this incident, I will be the first to take legal action against them," said al-Jabri. He has assigned individuals within the department to cooperate with the management of News Yemen to analyze technical data, with the dual goals of addressing the technical problems and identifying the source of the virus.
The minister expressed his appreciation for the support News Yemen has extended to Internet development within Yemen. Furthermore, al-Jabri underscored the importance of the news agency, and lauded the agency as an important source of national information. He also stressed his respect for the policy of inclusiveness and open dialogue manifested throughout the website.
Amer Hazza, the General Manger of the Internet Department, has defended the department's management. Hazza claimed that the appearance of the name of his colleague Yasser al-Emad does not denote a direct charge of guilt.
Al-Emad's name had been tied to an IP address with connections to News Yemen's website, although the evidence is not conclusive, Hazza assured. However, News Yemen has recently discovered that al-Emad has been accused of penetrating a number of Yemeni governmental and security services' websites.
Al-Sofi has expressed his willingness to apologize to the ministry and the department if they are not responsible for what has transpired. He continued, "It is the duty of the ministry to protect Internet users."
"It is not up to us to protect any site hosted outside of Yemen," countered Hazz'a, referring to the widespread epidemic of web hacking, a practice which causes problems across the global community.
It has been acknowledged that the Department of the Internet, with the cooperation of the host company, will be capable of determining the identity of the person behind the disruption of News Yemen's website.
Technicians will require up to three months to deal with the damages to the website, al-Sofi explained. The corporation has called for a national campaign, in an effort to secure the activity and restore the trust of the online community of Yemen.
News Yemen has apologizes to readers for the inconvenience. Due to the nature of the virus, News Yemen cannot publish any developments in this case, or the activities of the corporation in their effort to restore broadcasts.
News Yemen's technical support systems, based in Sana'a and the United States, are cooperating to restore the site's archival files, which contained over thirty five thousand articles spanning the preceding five years. The technical teams will also examine the records of the final eighty connections to the site. They stress that the latest attempt to penetrate the system began six months ago.
News Yemen has achieved partial success in correcting these problems through the strenuous efforts of its staff. However, News Yemen considers the events an e-crime, and therefore will address the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, and the General Union of Chambers of Commerce, as well as all other organizations defending the freedom of expression and the protection of legitimate economic activities through the Internet. Collaboration with these other organization aims to support a national campaign to ensure that what happened to News Yemen will not be repeated within any institution or other form of "new media" in the Republic of Yemen.
By Observer Staff
© Yemen Observer 2009
