Angry Romanians deface Daily Telegraph website

I'll be writing this article in both English and Romanian. Partea engleza va avea de-a face cu diferentele dintre romani si tigani, cea in romana cu inutilitatea acestei "lupte". Both domains affected do not presently resolve.

In short, the Shortbreaks and Wine and Dine websites residing on subdomains of the Daily Telegraph were defaced with the same message, which reads:

R.N.S. – Romanian National Security

Ne-am saturat sa vedem cum niste “gunoaie” ca voi incearca sa isi bata joc de tara noastra. Sa ne creati o imagine cu totul alta fata de cea reala, si numindu-ne “romanian gypsies” difuzand emisiuni de tot cacatul gen TopGear

Daca ati avut tupeul sa enervati o tara intreaga, aflati ca nu ne vom opri aici! Romania

or, translated:

“We are sick and tired of seeing how some "garbage" like you try to mock our country. [And try] to create [for us] a completely different picture compared to the real one, and calling us "romanian gypsies" [,] broadcast s****y tv programs like TopGear."
If you had the nerve to angry an entire country, know that we will not stop here! Romania
Guess What, Gypsies aren't Romanians, morons.”

The hacks were first reported by the HackersBlog and the RTScenter forum (links below), not by the Sunbelt Blog, as reported by the Guardian and the Register. Both defaced pages play a folk song called The Lonely Sheppard by Gheorghe Zamfir.

I happen to agree with @linksonice, one of the commenters to the SunBelt Blog, this is the show’s style and the net effect is probably positive, drawing more tourists to Romania:

Yes, it's pretty funny I think. Nice job, hacker! As a Romanian living in the UK, I found the Top Gear episode pretty harmless, a fairly positive PR exercise for tourism, although somewhat jingoistic here and there, as may be expected knowing the hosts. Even so, not only Top Gear but much of the UK mass media do indeed need a wake-up call, if not a kick up the backside for the way they refer to gypsies from Romania as simply "Romanians". The distinction needs to be made, because "by jingo", the overwhelming majority of Romanian people in the UK DO work for a living and pay taxes, and are ethnically speaking NOT gypsies. BTW uhmm ... English people are likewise perceived by a lot of folks in Romania as chavs and hooligans. Irish? Pikeys the lot of 'em. =))) It's all in good fun however isn't it folks, let's not get too riled up eh.

The unfavourable treatment of Romania by the British media is not news. As it turns out, the hacker UNU has been writing about the SQL injection vulnerabilities on the Daily Telegraph website since March 2009, but Daily Telegraph has not corrected the vulnerabilities. Ironically, they may have an easier time correcting them were it not for UK’s labour and immigration policies, which, like several other European countries, discriminate against the newest members of the European family – to be fair though, UK is not the worst offender.

While Romanians trace their origins to Tracians or, more precisely, Getae, who inhabited Dacia before being conquered by the Romans led by Trajan, Gypsies (or Romanyi, as they started to be called by the Soros Foundation one or two decades ago) come from India and have customs and a language that clearly resemble those in that part of the world. Gypsies are the most persecuted ethnic group in the world, but mixing them up with another nation does neither any favours.

Pe de alta parte, reactiile exagerate la astfel de show-uri nu sunt poate de dorit. Este adevarat ca diplomatia romaneasca si Ministerul roman de externe nu fac fata valului de antiromanism sau arogantei si “disdain”-ului cu care Romania este privita dar de multe ori vigilantismul poate crea reactii opuse celei urmarite. Show-ul TopGear nu a prezentat Romania intr-o lumina mai nefavorabila decat alte parti pe care le-au vizitat. Daca ar suna ca un articol wikipedia, nu i-ar urmari nimeni!

Dupa cum am mai spus, solutia cea mai simpla la atacurile constante de imagine la care sunt supusi romanii este schimbarea numelui tarii si al natiunii in Dacia.

Sources / More info: Register-angry-rom, guardian-telegraph-hacked, sunbeltblog-defaced, unu-sql-injection, wiki-telegraph, bbc-topgear-romania, gt-spirit, translation, hackersblog-1, hackersblog-2, hackersblog-3, original-forum-news, attack-author-fLr^, yt-top-gear-ro

zamo, daily telegraph, gypsies, gypsy, gypsys, romi, tigani, tiganie, hacker, hacks, defacement, unu