VZCZCXYZ0003
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHYN #2171 3410850
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 070850Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY SANAA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 3330

UNCLAS SANAA 002171 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR NEA/PPD, NEA/ARP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM KPAO YM
SUBJECT: YEMEN'S LEADING INDEPENDENT NEWS SITE HACKED; 
EVIDENCE POINTS TO ROYG 
 
REF: SANAA 1835 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY.  On November 28, hackers attacked Yemen's 
leading independent news website NewsYemen, crashing the site 
and erasing its five-year news archive.  Website editor Nabil 
al-Soufi blamed the Ministry of Telecommunications, citing 
evidence that the virus which destroyed the website 
originated in a Ministry office.  NewsYemen remained offline 
until December 5, and its staff estimate that it will take 
months to fully reconstruct the website.  If verified, the 
claims of ROYG involvement in the hacking suggest a dramatic 
escalation on the digital front of the ROYG's crackdown on 
independent media.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (U) On November 28, a computer virus struck Yemeni news 
website NewsYemen, crashing the site and erasing its 
five-year archive of news stories.  (Comment: As Yemen's 
premier independent online news source, the NewsYemen website 
had been a critical resource for activists, scholars, and 
foreign missions in understanding events in Yemen, and has 
received roughly 40 million visits in the past five years. 
End Comment.)  NewsYemen editor Nabil al-Soufi issued a 
public statement on December 4 accusing the Ministry of 
Telecommunications of orchestrating the attack.  Citing 
evidence from NewsYemen's U.S.-based web hosting company 
Brinkster, the statement alleged that a user named Yaser 
al-Amad from within the Telecommunications Ministry's 
Internet Administration office sent the virus.  "As if this 
disaster were not bad enough, it was made much worse when we 
learned that what happened was an exercise of the powers 
granted to the Ministry of Telecommunications," the statement 
read.  A November 28 cyber-attack which crashed state-owned 
internet service provider YemenNet, for which no one has 
claimed responsibility, was rumored to be an act of 
retaliation by supporters of NewsYemen. 
 
YEARS OF WORK, GONE IN MINUTES 
 
¶3. (SBU) Soufi told PolOff on December 3, "I have lost five 
years of my life's work.  I feel like I have been robbed ... 
I was deceived into thinking there was press freedom in 
Yemen."  Soufi estimated the material loss from the attack at 
$200,000 and feared that if he could not recover the lost 
data quickly, he might have to fire his eight staff members. 
On December 5, the website came back online with a skeletal 
homepage featuring stories about the hacking.  The lead story 
explained that NewsYemen's technical team would undertake 
three initiatives: "first, restoring the homepage to allow 
the publication of new stories; second, working with 
technical support in the U.S. and the Ministry of 
Telecommunications to identify the culprit and restore the 
archives; and third, redesigning the website to make it more 
secure." 
 
ROYG DENIES INVOLVEMENT 
 
¶4. (SBU) On December 5, Soufi met with Telecommunications 
Minister Kamal Hussein al-Jabri.  Jabri denied any 
involvement by the Ministry in the incident and assured Soufi 
that those responsible would be prosecuted.  Soufi told 
EmbOff he was not convinced and still believed that the ROYG 
was responsible for the attack.  He intends to present the 
evidence implicating the Ministry of Telecommunications 
before a court of law. 
 
AN EASY TARGET 
 
¶5. (SBU) Soufi cited several reasons why he suspected the 
ROYG would target NewsYemen.  Soufi told PolOff on December 3 
that he had twice traveled to Sa'ada governorate to report on 
the ongoing Houthi conflict.  He had already published one 
story and was preparing to publish another when the hacking 
occurred.  The ROYG has bristled at independent reporting on 
the Sa'ada conflict (reftel).  Soufi also said he had been 
targeted because, unlike other journalists, he does not have 
connections with powerful tribal leaders or government 
figures. 
 
COMMENT 
 
¶6. (SBU) In a media landscape where most outlets are 
controlled either by the ROYG or by opposition parties, 
NewsYemen was a rare beacon of responsible, independent 
journalism.  The attack on NewsYemen provides a dismal 
bookend for a year of unprecedented assaults on press freedom 
in Yemen, including legal prosecution and extralegal 
abduction of responsible journalists, censoring articles, 
blocking websites, and shuttering independent newspapers. END 
COMMENT. 
BRYAN