Anti-Isis Kurdish hacker targets NTMA website

State’s debt office took website offline ‘as soon as unauthorised access was detected’

A screen grab posted on Twitter of the National Treasury Management Agency website  said that the site had been “hacked by MuhmadEmad”, who posted a picture of the Kurdish flag. Photograph: iStockphoto
A screen grab posted on Twitter of the National Treasury Management Agency website said that the site had been “hacked by MuhmadEmad”, who posted a picture of the Kurdish flag. Photograph: iStockphoto

The National Treasury Management Agency pulled down its website on Monday morning after a Kurdish hacker targeted the website with anti-Islamic State (Isis) views.

The debt agency said in a statement that its “standard IT protocols took effect as soon as the unauthorised access was detected” and that the website suspension has had no impact on its systems or operations.

A screen grab posted on Twitter of the NTMA website on Monday morning, before it was taken offline, said that the site had been “hacked by MuhmadEmad”. The perpetrator also posted a picture of the Kurdish flag, and wrote “long live peshmarga”, a reference to the Kurdish army of Peshmerga, an anti-Isis force based in Iraq.

Previously targeted

The hacker has previously targeted websites internationally, including sub-domains of computer group Dell and those of Fiji’s defence and police forces.

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The NTMA said the website, which is hosted offsite, will be restored as soon as possible.

Earlier, The Irish Times reported that the NTMA website was down as the agency said that it plans to raise as much as €1.25 billion on Thursday through two bond auctions.

Joe Brennan

Joe Brennan

Joe Brennan is Markets Correspondent of The Irish Times