“Dr. Ahli” is his code name and there is no site in Libya that is safe from his hacking abilities. Whether infiltrating the website of the prime ministry or Libyan Telecom and Technology (LTT) and inactivating accounts of parliament members, Dr. Ahli and his colleagues view themselves as activists against any kind of exploitation, whether it be financial or governmental.
“Dr. Ahli” is his code name and there is no site in Libya that is safe from his hacking abilities. Whether infiltrating the website of the prime ministry or Libyan Telecom and Technology (LTT) and inactivating accounts of parliament members, Dr. Ahli and his colleagues view themselves as activists against any kind of exploitation, whether it be financial or governmental.
Dr. Ahli is a member of a group called the Libyan Worms— established in 2008— and they have been executing group hacking operations that have affected hundreds of websites, especially ones they consider anti-Islamic and provoking of violence against Muslims.
Earlier this month, the Libyan Worms teamed up with The Great Team (TGT) and participated in a campaign directed by Muslim and Arab hackers to compromise Israeli websites. On the Israeli’s Ministry of Agriculture page they uploaded an image of the Libyan flag with a picture of Omar Mukhtar, the leader of Libya’s resistance to Italian colonization. They also hacked a major marketing company website where they inactivated hundreds of electronic credit cards.
No Exploitation
Last February, the group launched a wide campaign under the slogan ‘No Exploitation’ and hacked LTT websites. “Although its services are of poor quality in terms of speed and communication data packages, it charges exorbitant fees,” Dr. Ahli said. “It exploits clients and refrains from developing itself since it is the only internet provider in Libya.”
“We have sent numerous warnings to the company to inform it of the fragility of its security system since its clients’ accounts can be easily accessed, but it ignored us and therefore we hacked into its system. The data we have obtained reaches far beyond our expectations,” he added.
Official acknowledgment
LTT Media Office Director Murad Bilal acknowledged the hackings, attributing them to a lack of well-set security procedures which were not handled seriously even though the LTT technical management had previously warned against them.
“Several hackings have been conducted. A programmer attended to the company and reported the possibility of infiltrating its system. Then, a hacker penetrated it, but he later cooperated with us in order to create security patches for our system,” Bilal explained.
Defective systems
The hacker says their operations aim at preventing exploitation and monopoly practiced by companies, stressing the fact that had they intended any harm they would have erased large amounts of data, and mentioning a hacking operation conducted by a Syrian hacker against Libyan websites where they were able to restore the hacked information.
The Libyan Worms, says Dr. Ahli, were able to hack into the servers of Libyan Spider Company, a private business providing web hosting and domain registration services, which enabled them to break into its hosted accounts.
Libyan Spider however issued a statement on March 2, describing the hacking operation as “directly targeting the company in order to defame it and distort its credibility.” The statement also denied the hacking into the company servers, stating that the hackings were performed through loopholes in its hosted accounts’ systems, which were not updated despite their repeated notifications.
However, Dr. Ahli said, “We failed to hack into the accounts hosted under Libyan Spider since their systems were well secured; nevertheless, we managed to hack into them through the company’s own loopholes, but we did not damage or alter the websites’ content. We only left our fingerprints to warn the clients of Libyan Spider against its faulty security system.” He also accused the company of exploiting its clients by charging exorbitant fees.
Extremely dangerous
Dr. Ahli provided statistics indicating that the Libyan Worms were able to hack into 99% of the Libyan governmental websites. Nevertheless, he cited indifference by authorities where they neither issued any relevant statement nor took any initiative in securing their websites.
He also said they were able to penetrate the systems of the Central Bank of Libya, Department of Civil Affairs, the Libyan Intelligence Department and several banks.
“It is extremely dangerous. We are able to add new names and alter or erase any information, but we did not and will never do that. Our message is clear; the government should secure its information, immunize its security systems and hire specialized companies to ensure the security of its clients’ data. We have hacked into these systems with good intentions; one day someone else will do it but with other intentions,” he added.
“Although we are in Libya, they will never detect us for their poor programming capability. Besides, no Libyan law criminalizes such operations,” Dr. Ahli concluded.
