A prominent Georgian blogger claims that hackers attacked his blog and social media accounts in an attempt to silence his pro-Georgia viewpoints.
Giorgi, a 34-year-old blogger from Tbilisi, Georgia, claims that the Denial of Service attacks that crippled social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook and Livejournal last week were an attempt by Russian hackers to prevent him from speaking out against Russia and the country’s activity within Georgia.
Twitter was taken offline for around two hours on Thursday and Facebook also suffered service outages after the attack, which is believed to have targeted the username Cyxymu – the name used by Giorgi, who does not publicise his full name for fear of reprisals.
The blogger also suggested that the attack was launched to coincide with the first anniversary of the Russia-Georgia conflict in South Ossetia.
“Maybe this is the Russians celebrating one year since the war,” he told The Independent. “Maybe the hackers want me to stop writing the truth about what happened.”
“Only Russia has a big problem with Georgia, and I wrote many things critical about their political system,” he added.
He claims that he is not anti-Russian but rather anti-Putin, and was simply using the internet to provide an open platform for those involved in the conflict to express their opinions. He also suggested that Russian security services may have played a part in the cyber attacks.
“It is not possible that only five or 10 people could shut down Livejournal, Twitter and Facebook,” he claimed.
But despite the attack, he has pledged to continue blogging about the political unrest in the region, despite many of his accounts remaining inaccessible.
“I am proud because these bad people attacked me,” he said. “It means I am doing a good thing. I will create a new blog in Livejournal. If it will be under attack, I’ll create another. If that is attacked, I’ll create another.”
