The Cyber Battle of Kosovo

After the 78-days of NATO's “intelligent” bombing of Serbia and a decade of squabbling in diplomatic halls, it seems that the frontline between Albanians and Serbs has moved into cyberspace.

This new struggle seems quite futuristic -for two nations that have been translated into headlines, for the major part of the twentieth century, as marred by ancient tribal hate and confused by such out-of-style European ideas as ethnic supremacy.

Hackers allegedly from Serbia attacked the website of Albania’s National Post on Sunday. “Kosovo is Serbia” was one of the messages left on the hacked web site, postashqiptare.al. The hackers also added a Serbian flag to the page- which was cute.

Pro-Serbian hacking groups defacing Albanian web sites seem to be on the rise.

ZDNET.com recalls that independent Albanian website defacers initially started attacking Serbian websites and were later joined by Kosovo hacking groups. In response, Serbian hacking groups started distributing a segmented list of exploitable Albanian web pages, which are duly being remotely attacked.

Scary stuff! Instead of Milosevic’s goons or bouncers from the KLA, people now have to worry about socially maladjusted teenagers sitting in their parents’ basements.

Well, as an Albanian I have the right to be scared this time around, for when it comes to technology we are somewhere between the age of the dinosaurs and the time of the crucifixion.

Photo by keshilliministrave.org

In 2005, the website of the Albanian government was attacked by a hacker from Brazil. During the attack, this internet pirate modified the content of the web page by leaving the message.
“F… You, and get your own box.”

Albania’s Prime Minister, Sali Berisha, who by the way is spending millions of euros on bringing the country into the Internet age, a few days ago mistakenly blamed hackers for setting up a spoof government website which shows him sitting next to Hitler.

“Hackers, they are everywhere,” said Berisha, with austere, former-communist-style demeanor, when asked by reporters about the site.“We will take stiff security measures to prevent such a thing from happening again,” he added.

The satirical site which has a web address keshilliministrave.org, spread a statement announcing that the web address of the government keshilliminitrave.al had moved.

The web page spoofs the Albanian premier with a satirical biography and photoshop-modified pictures, showing Berisha in US Army uniform from the Second World War and handling a Tommy-gun.
The Albanian government is about as likely to find an answer to this latest conflict as Berisha is to turn water into wine. However, as the Bible says, God works in mysterious ways.

A few weeks ago, Microsoft opened an office in Tirana. I wonder if, this time around, the US Cavalry has come to save our backs from being defaced, or if they are only here to collect the fees for the thousands of word processors installed illegally in Albanian government offices.