AMMAN - For the fourth consecutive day, several websites of public and private institutions came under attack by hackers on Sunday, according to the National Information Technology Centre (NITC).

"The attempts to hack several websites continued today and the hackers succeeded in defacing and bringing down some websites whose servers are not hosted by the centre," NITC General Manager Nabeel Fayoumi told The Jordan Times on yesterday.

Hacking attacks by Saudi Arabia-based hackers started last week, he said, adding that they continued to attack websites hosted by the centre and others.

"The hackers failed in attacking any of the websites hosted by the NITC today although they tried many times. We host websites of ministries such as finance and information and communications technology, as well as other public agencies," Fayoumi said.

However, the hackers on Sunday succeeded in defacing and delaying the service of more websites, some of which are affiliated with the private sector, while the majority are related to public institutions, he added.

"We are fully capable of protecting the sites that we host at the centre. But it seems that the other sites hosted in the US, abroad or by private companies, were vulnerable and suffered as a result of the hacking attacks," Fayoumi noted.

The hacking attacks started as a result of a recent “electronic war” between Jordanian and Saudi Arabia-based hackers.

Last week, the websites of some agencies in Saudi Arabia including the website of the Saudi Arabia Football Federation were hacked by Jordan-based hackers, which prompted hackers from Saudi Arabia to hack the Jordan Football Association website and threaten to hack other sites in the country.