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The website of the West Australian stadium was briefly taken down by a distributed denial-of-service attack over the weekend.
A threat actor called Team Insane Pakistan has taken responsibility for the incident, saying on its Telegram channel that the takedown was “for fun”.
Given the capricious nature of many such groups, it is entirely possible that a bored hacker was looking for easy targets to take advantage of. Still, it’s also possible there are other motives.
For one thing, the Pakistan cricket team will be playing Australia in a test match at Optus Stadium in December, so it could also be a display of misplaced patriotic fervour. Team Insane Pakistan also recently targeted the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association in India – maybe they’re just cricket fans.
However, the group is also loudly anti-Israel and has taken the side of Hamas and Palestine in the ongoing conflict between the two sides. Team Insane Pakistan has targeted Israeli government organisations and hospitals with distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks since hostilities began earlier in October. Its victims include Cyber 7, Israel’s cyber security innovation hub, a tour company, and the Israeli Hadassah Hospital.
After the Indonesian group Garnesia Team hit the Sheba Medical Center with a DDoS attack, Team Insane Pakistan shared a news story regarding Israeli hospitals going offline to keep themselves safe.
“Several hospitals asked to cut off internet access for a few hours over cyber attack fears,” the post said. “Cry more.”
“All Muslim Cyber Army Go Ahead,” the post concluded.
Cyber Daily has reached out to Optus Stadium for comment.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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