A new wave of cyberattacks is reigniting tensions between Moroccan and Algerian hacker groups. On Saturday, an Algerian collective claimed responsibility for a large-scale operation that targeted several Moroccan government websites, disrupting various online services. The cyberwar between Moroccan and Algerian hacker groups has entered a new phase since Tuesday, marked by a wave of attacks and counterattacks targeting institutions on both sides of the border. The latest salvo came on Saturday from the Algerian group DDOS54, which claimed responsibility for a large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on several Moroccan government websites. In a message posted to its Telegram channel, DDOS54 announced it had launched a «major campaign» against Morocco's digital infrastructure—a «firm» response, it said, to alleged cyber intrusions by Moroccan hackers. The group claimed to have disrupted access to several government platforms, including the Ministry of Agriculture's website (offline from Saturday night to Sunday), the Ministry of Relations with Parliament's site (since restored), and Tax.gov.ma, which was displaying a maintenance message. Unlike previous attacks, no data leaks have been claimed so far. However, DDOS54 said its 15-day campaign aims to «paralyze Moroccan government digital services», with repeated attacks meant to mark what it calls a turning point in the «history of this cyber conflict». A Spiral of Escalation Since Tuesday This latest escalation began on Tuesday, when another Algerian group, JabaRoot DZ, claimed to have hacked Morocco's National Social Security Fund (CNSS), releasing files allegedly containing salary information for 2 million individuals from 500,000 companies. In response, Moroccan hacker groups launched a series of retaliatory attacks against Algerian institutions. Among the targets were the website of the General Mutual of Posts and Telecommunications (MGTT) and the Algerian Ministry of Labor, both of which experienced brief outages. The most significant counterstrike came from another Moroccan collective, which released a 34 GB trove of sensitive data allegedly stolen from Algeria's Ministry of Pharmaceutical Industry. The leak included confidential documents and internal communications. Telegram: A Digital Battlefield Telegram has emerged as the main arena for these hacker groups—used not only to claim responsibility and publish stolen data but also to issue threats and coordinate future operations. The message posted Saturday by DDOS54 was both aggressive and clear: «The mission is clear, and the objective is defined: to paralyze the Moroccan government's digital systems and disable all its electronic services». What was once a sporadic series of cyber incidents has evolved into a more structured, sustained digital conflict between Moroccan and Algerian hacker groups. While there is no official evidence linking these actors directly to either state, the symbolic nature of the targets and the timing of attacks suggest deeper geopolitical undertones. Already locked in a tense diplomatic standoff, Morocco and Algeria are now seeing their rivalry spill into the digital realm—posing growing risks to public data security, the continuity of essential services, and citizen trust.
