Widespread Cyberattack Targets Ministries of Afghanistan’s Interim Government

DIDPress: A hacker group known as Afghan Dragons announced early Friday, May 30, that in response to the deprivation of education for women and girls in Afghanistan, it has launched large-scale cyberattacks taking nearly all ministry websites of Afghanistan’s caretaker government offline.

In a media statement, the group described the purpose of the attack as “defending the rights of Afghan women and girls,” claiming to have targeted more than 24 official websites of Taliban-run ministries. Except the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation website, all other official portals are currently inaccessible.

In addition to the ministries, over 15 other government institutions have also been targeted by these cyberattacks, the group added.

The interim government has not yet responded to the incident.

In February, another group called TalibanLeaks infiltrated the systems of Taliban-controlled agencies, exposing and publishing internal documents of dozens of institutions online. At that time, the Ministry of Communications of the interim government confirmed the authenticity of the leaked information.