Al Jazeera under attack from hackers

Johannesburg - Doha-based news broadcaster Al Jazeera on Thursday night said it has suffered numerous massive cyber-attacks on its online platforms and social networks . 

On its website, the company said it has experienced “systematic and continual hacking attempts”.

In tweets from the company’s official and verified Twitter account @AJEnglish, it was reported that downtime was experienced by its news online platforms and its social media accounts. 

The company also posted updates about the attack on its Facebook account. 

“These attempts are gaining intensity and taking various forms. However, the platforms have not been compromised,” Al Jazeera said in a Facebook post. 

READ: Bahrain minister hacked hot on heels of Qatar cyber attack

The attack comes on the tail-end of another cyber-attack where hackers took over the Twitter account of the Bahraini foreign minister earlier this week.

The hack - purportedly carried out in the name of a fringe militant group - came after the Bahraini authorities dissolved the kingdom's last major opposition movement and after police shot dead five protesters while dispersing a long-running sit-in.

The Qatar state news agency also experienced an attack last month.

FBI experts aided in investigating the hack on the official news agency’s website and Twitter account, in which damaging comments about a raft of sensitive regional issues were falsely attributed to its ruler.

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