American agency FBI helping out in Qatar News Agency hacking probe
Investigations into the recent Qatar News Agency (QNA) hack have been going on in full strength.
And now, American domestic intelligence and security service agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), has stepped in to help Qatar out with the probe, reported Al Jazeera.
According to the Doha-based channel, an FBI team has been in Doha for the past week after the Qatari government asked US for help following a security breach by hackers last month who posted fake remarks attributed to HH The Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on its official media platform —QNA.
“American support was requested and a team sent which has been in Doha since last Friday, working with Qatar's interior ministry,” AFP quoted a source as saying.
It is understood that two other unnamed countries are also helping with the investigation. The result of the probe is expected to be released as early as next week.
Despite vigorous denials by Qatar, which said it had been the victim of a ‘shameful cybercrime,’ Saudi Arabia and the UAE ran the remarks on its different newspapers and websites.
The fake report said HH The Emir, in a speech at a military graduation ceremony, was critical of renewed tensions with Iran, expressed the need for contextualising Hezbollah and Hamas as resistance movements, and suggested that US President Donald Trump might not last long in power.
A Qatari government spokesman had clarified that while HH The Emir attended the graduation ceremony for Qataris doing national service, he ‘ did not make any speech or give any statements.’
The hack had come just a little while after Qatar said that it was the victim of a hostile media campaign, particularly in the US.
