Juvenile Court of the Maldives

Summary

The Juvenile Court of the Maldives experienced a cyberattack that rendered its website inaccessible, displaying a message from hackers identifying as "Bharatiya hackers" from TeaM NETWORK9. The group claimed the attack was retaliation against inflammatory remarks by Maldivian officials, warning of further disruptions to the nation's cyberspace unless provocations ceased. This followed similar outages affecting other government websites, including the President’s Office and Foreign Ministry, which authorities initially attributed to technical issues before restoration. The hackers referenced diplomatic tensions and promoted hashtags related to Indian territories while condemning perceived disrespect toward India.

Motives

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TTPs

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Description

On January 7, 2024, the official websites of the Maldivian President’s Office, Foreign Ministry, and Tourism Ministry experienced prolonged outages lasting several hours. Maldivian authorities publicly characterized the disruptions as stemming from "technical issues" and did not initially acknowledge any malicious activity. The President’s Office issued a statement on social media platform X confirming an "unexpected technical disruption," noting that the National Center for Information Technology (NCIT) and other entities were working to restore services. The affected government websites were fully restored later that same day. This incident preceded a second wave of cyber activity targeting Maldivian infrastructure.

On January 10, 2024, the web platform of the Juvenile Court of the Maldives became unavailable, displaying a defacement message attributed to the hacking group TeaM NETWORK9. The group identified itself as "Bharatiya hackers" (Indian hackers) and cited "inflammatory and offensive statements" by Maldivian officials—specifically naming Malsha, Hassan Zihan, and Mariyum Shiuna—as justification for the attack. The message condemned the remarks as detrimental to India-Maldives relations and referenced historical Indian support for the Maldives. It warned of further cyber actions to "severely impact your cyber space" unless provocations ceased, accompanied by hashtags promoting Indian tourism alternatives to the Maldives (#ExploreIndianIsland, #Lakshadweep). The group acknowledged collaboration with other unspecified hacker outfits. Maldivian authorities had not publicly commented on the Juvenile Court breach or its connection to the earlier January 7 incidents at the time of reporting. No technical details regarding attack vectors, data compromise, or restoration timelines for the Juvenile Court system were disclosed in available sources.

Sources

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