Details added (the first version was posted at 11:15)
Azerbaijan, Baku, May 4 / Trend K.Zarbaliyeva /
A number of cyber terrorism-related websites and information resources operating in the Azerbaijani language were found in foreign countries' servers, Azerbaijani National Security Ministry's Department head Karim Karimov said at a roundtable on "Cyber and national security: NATO policy and national position" on Wednesday.
"The activity of such information resources have been ceased thanks to the joint operations of the Azerbaijani National Security Ministry, Communications and IT Ministry and other relevant agencies," he added.
Investigation revealed that they were established to spread guidelines about the religious and national confrontation, illegal armed groups, terrorist and radical religious organizations and preparation of explosives.
As a result of the deliberately distorted information provided by biased and non-objective forces, a number of well-known resources and information portals, which are used and referenced by users, lose their credibility, Karimov said.
Karimov cited the e-encyclopedia Wikipedia as an example. "Very often, the insidious forces post biased information about Azerbaijan here. Those who know nothing about Azerbaijan receive false information about our country and this affects the credibility and economy of the Republic," he said.
Certain difficulties are faced while eliminating this problem, international organizations and foreign countries discuss the issue and systematically take measures, Karimov said.
"An increase is observed in the number of online resources through which the separatist, nationalist and radical racist forces conduct a false ideological propaganda. Armenia continues its occupation policy against Azerbaijan in the virtual space. These attacks are conducted from the Internet segment of Armenia itself and neighboring countries. Recently, two Azerbaijani ministries' websites have been attacked by computer network and information resources. Investigations conducted by our colleagues in neighboring states revealed that Armenian citizens committed these attacks," Karimov said.
A sale of special technical means used to obtain info is widespread through the Internet, he said. Conduct of illegal operational and investigative activities at a time of using e- money transfer services usually pose a threat to human rights and freedoms.
"Using online channels as a means of international communication, we encounter the illegal services. This is manifested in the form of theft of telecommunications traffic. The number of such crimes has been increased recently. Offenders create virtual companies with limited technical capabilities under the guise of providing cheap telephone conversations with various countries, and they transmit communication traffic more than their opportunities allow. But they can not pass it with high quality and stable, which results in occurrence of problems in channels. Communication traffic, which can not be passed, does not reach its destination. Some companies, giving announcements in a variety of texts, deceive customers and create an inconvenience for them," Karimov said.
Investigations revealed cases of selling pornographic materials and materials on child pornography and drugs through the Internet. Important state infrastructure and human lives become subject if attacks through computer network. Manifestations of cyber-terrorism are observed in virtual space.
Forces, taking advantage of opportunities of information technology to carry out their illegal activities, criminals and terrorists create a cyber-threats to national security, Karimov said. Cyber crime and cyber attacks carried out inside the country and from abroad, are transnational in nature in Azerbaijan.
"Through the network, we face cases of destruction, modification, and denial of information, copyright infringement, misappropriation of information, spread of viral programs to assign computers and their networks, banking and financial transactions using of information illegally obtained cards and money laundering ," Karimov said.