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WhatsApp hacked by Palestinian group via another DNS hijack

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WhatsApp hacked by Palestinian group via another DNS hijack

After a group of four hackers took down Google Palestine last month by redirecting visitors to a different website, AVG and WhatsApp were just hacked as well.

Today, many news outlets reported that KDMS Team, a Palestinian hackers group, tried to hack anti-virus website AVG and the WhatsApp website. The team even tweeted about the hack on their Twitter account saying: “Yesterday we owned #Alexa, #redtube, #leaseweb and #facebook deleted our page but today.. we get #avg and #WhatsApp. What next? W8 for us.” [sic]

KDMS defaced the main page of avg.com showing the below message, initially, according to security analyst Graham Cluley, it was unclear whether the hackers changed the AVG’S domain name service (DNS) records and redirected AVG visitors to another IP, or whether they actually breached AVG’s systems. 

An update was released soon after however confirming that it was a case of DNS hijacking. We also received today an email from Weggener Edstorm, a global communications agency, with AVG's official statement:

"AVG can confirm today that it has had a select number of online properties defaced as a result of our domain name system (DNS) registrar being compromised.  A number of other companies appear to have been faced with the similar issue. The situation is being further monitored and assessed closely.  Customers are our priority, the DNS records have been corrected and AVG is working hard to resume normal service levels to its customer base and continue to protect our customers and their privacy.”
KDMS, who claimed previously that they ‘hacked’ LeaseWebtweeted this morning: “#WhatsApp Site Hacked”. Same message was displayed on the WhatsApp website adding a page title that reads: “You Got Pwned”. Both AVG and WhatsApp were able to direct their traffic back to their own servers.  

During the time of print, the group tweeted again: “#Avira still down! Freedom.”   

The rest of the Palestinian tech community may be tiring of the hacks; not a single member on Pal Geeks, Peeks, or the ITSIG forums posted anything about it; members on Pal Geeks posted instead about an upcoming coding hackathon on October 24th.

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