Hackers hijack and deface Google Palestine homepage

Google’s Palestine homepage was ‘defaced’ by hackers from the region, in an ‘apparent’ protest against how Palestine is depicted in Google Maps. Google.ps, the Palestinian version of the search engine, has now returned to its original appearance. When hacked, the homepage displayed an explanation of how the hackers were protesting the legitimacy of terminology used in Google Maps, which does not display Palestine in its imagery, according to multiple reports online. Google, however, later stated that it had not been ‘hacked’. [caption id=“attachment_1063851” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image of Google logo. Reuters[/caption] According to Zdnet.com, the attackers were able to deface the site with “a successful DNS hijacking attempt.” “In doing so, the Google homepage was redirected to a Morocco-based server,” says the website. “We also checked with the WHOIS provider of the Palestinian top-level domain name (.ps), which confirmed that Google.ps remained under the ownership of Google US  in Mountain View, California.” The page contained this statement (sic): “uncle google we say hi from palestine to remember you that the country in google map not called israel. its called Palestine” in additon to text images and a map screenshot. Earlier this year, Google updated its Palestinian search engine to display ”Palestine” instead of ”Palestinian Territories”. The company made the changes to fall in line with a  UN change of status that re-classified Palestine as a non-member observer instead of an entity.