US news website accuses Malaysian government hackers of attacking it

The United States-based Environment News Service today accused Malaysian government hackers of shutting down its website for two hours after it ran a story on a new book implicating a senior politician in alleged graft. The hacking occurred after a story about plans to publish Lukas Straumann’s (pic) book, “Money Logging: On the Trail of the Asian Timber Mafia” despite demands by a law firm representing Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud, a stalwart of the ruling coalition, to withhold publication.

The attack on our site came from a Malaysian government entity as identified by their IP address.

Sunny Lewis, editor-in-chief of Environment News Service

Taib, 78, governor of Sarawak and a powerful member of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, has faced mounting accusations of enriching himself and his cronies through a stranglehold on the state’s economy, charges which he denies. The book “Money Logging” investigates the massive destruction of the Borneo rainforest by Malaysian loggers, described by former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown as “probably the biggest environmental crime of our times”. Malaysian officials were not immediately available for comment.

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