Bahrain arrests 16 over ‘acts of chaos and vandalism’

Arrests come days after hackers took down government and news media websites

Authorities in Bahrain have arrested 16 people after state and media websites were hacked. Reuters

Bahrain has arrested 16 people on charges of “causing chaos and vandalism”, days after hackers took down the websites of the country's international airport and local news outlets.

The Interior Ministry said on Thursday it confirmed “that within the framework of the efforts exerted to maintain security and public order and enhance public safety, 16 people have been arrested in recent days”.

The ministry accused the suspects of participating in unlawful acts and practices “with the aim of causing chaos and vandalism”.

A statement posted online by a group calling itself Al Toufan, Arabic for “The Flood”, claimed to have hacked the Bahrain International Airport website on Tuesday. The site was unavailable for at least half an hour in the middle of the day.

It also said it hacked into the websites of the state-run Bahrain News Agency, which was sporadically unavailable at midday the same day, and the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce, which was down for a period in the afternoon before access was restored.

The group posted images showing 504 Gateway Timeout Errors.

The same group appears to have hacked and changed articles on the website of Akhbar Al Khaleej, a pro-government newspaper in Bahrain. The newspaper’s website was still down on Thursday morning.

“A number of government agency websites have today been the target of malicious cyberattacks,” the government said.

“Government operations were unaffected by the attacks and work is continuing to restore access to the targeted websites.”

It did not identify who it believed was behind the attacks.