'US intel data show Qatari News Agency had been hacked'

The Qatari ambassador to Russia said on Sunday that US intelligence data show that the Middle East country's news agency had been hacked.

Doha’s investigation, as well as US intelligence data, confirmed that the country’s news agency had been hacked, which was an act of aggression from a foreign country, Qatari Ambassador to Russia Fahad Mohammed Attiyah told Sputnik.

"Now people know what really motivated this, they understand that what happened to Qatar on 24 of May was an unlawful aggression by another nation by hacking into our news agency. The reports from US intelligence came out to confirm that, so as our investigation," the ambassador said.

Qatar's Ministry of Interior announced that experts now have evidence showing that the cyber-attack on the country's official media originated from the United Arab Emirates.

During a news conference in Doha on Thursday, officials said the planning for the hacking of Qatar News Agency (QNA) started as early as April, Al-Jazeera reported.

Investigators also reportedly traced the IP (internet protocol) address linked to the hacking to the UAE. Captain Othman Salem al-Hamoud stressed that the level and the quality of the hacking was so professional that it had to have "state resources" behind it.

EA