Two teenagers are suspected of having hacked the Web sites of Belgian and French newspapers earlier in the week, prosecutors said on Friday.
“The regional unit of computer crime managed ... to identify the presumed perpetrators” of the cyberattacks on Monday and Sunday last week, Brussels prosecutors said in a statement.
The attacks were launched against the Web sites of Le Soir, La Libre Belgique, La Derniere Heure and publications of the Sudpresse group.
The attacks also targeted French regional publications belonging to the Rossel group, including La Voix du Nord, as well as the Union de Reims and l’Ardennais, whose sites were disabled in the attack.
The two minors, who were born in 1997 and 1999, will have a court hearing, the prosecutors said.
Authorities carried out three raids in Belgium.
“At at least one address, material linked to the events was discovered,” the statement said, adding that it was being analyzed.
An examining magistrate has been tasked with investigating the case and the probe will try to determine if others are involved, it said.
If any adults are implicated and found guilty of hacking, they could face a prison term of one to five years, a fine of up to 100,000 euros (US$108,000), as well as an order to reimburse any damages.
The Belgian media group Rossel, which owns Le Soir, Sudpresse, La Voix du Nord, L’Union de Reims and l’Ardennais, filed a complaint with the police earlier in the week, as did Belgian group IMP, which owns La Libre Belgique and La Dernihre Heure.
The most serious hacking took place on Sunday evening last week, forcing Le Soir to close its Web site for several hours. It nearly prevented the newspaper from publishing its Monday morning edition.
In a video, a group claiming to be the Belgian branch of “Anonymous” said it had identified one of the perpetrators as “an adolescent who was a bit of a games junky” who lives in Belgium.
In the video, “Anonymous,” which is itself a group of hackers, said it had transmitted the information to the police in the name of defending freedom of expression.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in