Qatar News Agency (QNA) Hack

In the early hours of 24th May 2017, Qatar News Agency (QNA) was hacked. The hacker used a vulnerability in the agency’s website that allowed them to collect passwords. Firstly, the hacker used VPN to infiltrate the QNA network and scan the website. Then, the hacker detected a vulnerability in the website and used it to install malicious software. This vulnerability was shared to others who accessed the network and installed more sophisticated malicious software. This software allowed them to collect passwords of all users on QNA’s network and proceed to the final attack where they posted false quotes attributed to the Emir on QNA website and Twitter account. The authorities were able to regain control of the website after four hours from the attack.

This incident caused the 2017 Qatar political crisis where Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic relations with Qatar and banned Qatari planes and ships from utilizing their airspace and sea routes, along with Saudi Arabia blocking Qatar’s only land crossing.

A team was made by the Ministry of Interior to investigate the incident and also the United States sent an FbI team to help in the investigation.

Qatar National Bank (QNB) Hack

On April 26, 2016, a huge collection of data from Qatar National Bank (QNB) was posted online. This data, which is 1.4 GB in size, includes internal corporate files and sensitive financial data for QNB’s customers. Many hacker teams claimed hacking QNB systems and leaking the data, but no is sure as to how the data was leaked.

The leaked data includes the personal bank accounts and passwords for Al Jazeera employees and members of the ruling al-Thani family. The data was confirmed later to be accurate, which severely harmed the bank’s reputation. This data breach also had an impact on the share prices of the bank, as it dropped after the data was leaked.

Although the bank stated that they have made an investigation team, they did not release any investigation results. Also, while all this data belongs to real users at the bank, no one was able to access the users’ accounts because the bank has two-factor authentication enabled for every user.

References

Finn, T. (2016, April 27). Qatar National Bank investigating alleged data hack. Reuters. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-qatar-ntl-bank-idUSKCN0XO22S

Haran, V., & Ross, R. (n.d.). Qatar National Bank Suffers Massive Breach. BankInfoSecurity. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/qatar-national-bank-suffers-massive-breach-a-9068

How QNA website was hacked? MoI explains. (2017, July 20). The Peninsula Qatar. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/20/07/2017/How-QNA-website-was-hacked-MoI-explains

Qatar diplomatic crisis. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar_diplomatic_crisis#Hacking_operations_against_Qatar

Qatar National Bank allegedly hacked, data of 1200 entities leaked. (n.d.). Middle East Eye. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/news/qatar-national-bank-allegedly-hacked-data-1200-entities-leaked-online-1642830110