Hackers calling themselves the Bangladesh Cyber Army have targeted the websites belonging to Bahrain-based top publishing house Al Hilal including Gulf Daily News (GDN) and some of its sister publications.

Security measures meant they were unable to tamper with the GDN's website, but they managed to change the homepages of four other publications early yesterday, replacing them with a logo and messages that read 'you will never stop us' and 'be ware [sic] - we are here - danger zone'.

Trade Arabia webmaster Francis Pangilinan said Al Hilal's IT team worked throughout yesterday morning to ensure minimal disruption.

'I was alerted to the hacking process early yesterday morning and the hackers were online from midnight to 1am,' said Pangilinan, in charge of monitoring and updating Al Hilal websites, including the GDN's.

'When I checked one of the sister publications' website, I found that files were uploaded to our server and the homepages were changed. They also hacked the GDN website, but were not successful in changing the homepage.'

It is not the first time the GDN has come under attack. In April, an Iranian group calling itself the Delta Hacking Team failed to hack its website. But it altered the homepages of four of sister publications, replacing them with a map of the region and labelling it as the Persian Gulf. – TradeArabia News Service