NATO sites hacked by Ukrainians over Crimea row

One of the most popular forms of online protest against authoritative action is to bring down the official website and make life chaotic, and NATO is the latest to fall victim over controversies in the Crimea. NATO's primary website, along with the pages for its online cyber defense center, were allegedly forced offline by Ukrainian hackers aiming to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with plans to relinquish a part of Ukraine to Russia, based on the NATO voting system.

The hacktivist group called Cyber Berkut have staked claim on bringing down NATO's main international page and the cyber defense center webpage. Although the NATO's Parliamentary Assembly page is currently working, the group said that they had hacked it as well.

The bone of contention here is Crimea, which is a small peninsula belonging to Ukraine and borders Russia. It is the size of our very own Jersey state and will be voted upon as to who has claim over the region.

Naturally, the Western leaders and Ukraine are calling the voting illegal and do not want the peninsula passing on to Russia. The timeline shows that when Ukraine and Western Countries labeled the voting illegal, the UN did attempt to pass a resolution invalidating the stand and Russia finally vetoed the same. In a nutshell, the cyberwar is escalating and things are moving at a fast pace. Cyber Berkut has already hacked several Russian sites over the past few weeks and now it's NATO's turn.

The long and short of it is that a certain powerful section of Ukrainians want to join in with Russia and a majority want to be associated with the European Union. To keep the conflicts to a minimum within the country, the present Prime Minister is considering NATO assistance and the locals don't want that. While the cyberwar continues, the fate of Crimea hangs in balance.

VIA The Verge