Turkish Hackers Down Russian Embassy Website in Israel

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Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives for a news conference at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, December 1, 2014. A Turkish hacker group downed the website of Russia’s Embassy in Israel on Sunday. Umit Bektas/Files/Reuters

A Turkish hacker group downed the website of Russia's embassy in Israel on Sunday, redirecting all visitors from the site to pages with Turkish nationalist images.

Russia and Turkey's relationship has deteriorated in recent months after Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 jet performing airstrikes in northern Syria, alleging it had violated Turkish airspace. Russia denied doing so and instead blamed Turkey of trying to cover up its trade with Islamist group Islamic State (ISIS) across the border.

The embassy site went down on Sunday afternoon with the Google cache of the page containing nothing to do with the Russian diplomatic mission to Israel, but instead showing the Turkish national flag and the country's first president and revered national hero Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

The group Börteçine Siber Tim claimed responsibility for taking the embassy site, as well as a number of Israeli sites, offline on its Facebook page.

Russian and Israeli authorities managed to restore the website back to operational later on Sunday.

The cyber attack is the second against the Russian government by Börteçine Siber Tim this month. The group claimed responsibility for hacking the Instagram account of Russian Communications Minister Nikolay Nikiforov during the first week of January. It temporarily took control of the account and posted Turkish flags and images of the downed Su-24.

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