Hackers briefly commandeered the website for Saudi Arabia's big investment conference to send a message about Jamal Khashoggi

saudi conference website hacked

Hackers targeted the website for the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference, a major investment conference hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The site briefly featured an edited image of the crown prince holding a knife over the slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi's head.
Below the image, text read: "For the sake of security for children worldwide, we urge all countries to put sanction on the Saudi regime."
The images were taken off the site and the page returned to normal on Monday, but appeared to be offline again on Tuesday morning, local time.
The conference known by some as "Davos in the Desert" has received negative attention in the wake of Khashoggi's disappearance and death. Several companies and titans of industry who were previously expected to attend backed out in recent days.

Hackers targeted the website for the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference, a major investment conference hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The website briefly featured images of the crown prince holding a large knife over Jamal Khashoggi's head. In the image, which has since been removed, the prince is standing near what appears to be the flag of the Islamic State terror group.

The Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, where Khashoggi died on October 2, appeared in the background of the image.

Some text below the image read: "For the sake of security for children worldwide, we urge all countries to put sanction on the Saudi regime."

It continues: "The regime, aligned with the United States, must be kept responsible for its barbaric and inhuman action, such as killing its own citizen Jamal Khashoggi and thousands of other innocent people in Yemen. The medieval Saudi regime is one of the sources for #Terrorism_Financing in the world."

'Davos in the Desert' site has been hacked @FIIKSA #Khashoggi pic.twitter.com/ddOr13Etr8
— Nahayat Tizhoosh (@NahayatT) October 22, 2018

The website also linked to a handful of similarly themed YouTube videos.

The Future Investment Initiative site returned to normal operation on Monday, but appeared to be offline again Tuesday morning, local time.

The conference known by some as "Davos in the Desert" has received negative attention in the wake of Khashoggi's disappearance and death. Several companies and titans of industry who were previously expected to attend backed out in recent days, including billionaire AOL cofounder and venture capitalist Steve Case and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who were both slated to speak.

The Kingdom admitted that Khashoggi had been "murdered" inside their consulate, but denied that the crown prince had any prior knowledge of the plot.

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