An Indonesian hacker has claimed responsibility for shutting down the Australian federal police website on Wednesday night. The Reserve Bank of Australia’s site was also attacked.

The AFP is unsure how long the site was down for and a spokeswoman said staff had discovered the attack in the early hours of Thursday morning, Australian time.

The cyber attack comes as tensions with Indonesia continue to rise after Guardian Australia and the ABC revealed Australia made attempts to tap the phones of Indonesia’s president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife and other confidants in 2009.

An Indonesian hacker with the group Anonymous claimed credit for the attack on Twitter and said the Reserve Bank’s website had been down about 3am Australian time.

She used the hashtag #IndonesianCyberArmy in some of her tweets.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/21/afp-website-hacked-indonesian-claims-responsibility-on-twitter

Liberal Party strategist and pollster Mark Textor has apologised for racially-loaded statements he posted on Twitter yesterday, criticising Indonesia's response to the phone-tapping revelations.

In one of a series of comments - that has since been deleted - Mr Textor said: "Apology demanded from Australia by a bloke who looks like a 1970's Pilipino [sic] porn star and has ethics to match".

He has denied speculation that he was referring to Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa.

"I was not referring to anyone in particular but if you want to imagine someone that's fine by me," he told the ABC today.

But just after dismissing the matter as a "bubble in a bubble" in the ABC interview, he posted an apology on the social media site.

"Apologies to my Indonesian friends - frustrated by media-driven divisions - Twitter is indeed no place for diplomacy," Mr Textor said.

The Liberal Party advisor also said yesterday that no Indonesian had been bombed in Australia, and posted the comment with photos of the Bali bombers.

Mr Textor touts himself as being in the Prime Minister's "inner circle", and his market research firm CrosbyTextor has been associated with the Liberal Party for many years.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-21/liberal-strategist-compares-indonesian-foreign-minister-to-porn/5107354

Protests about Australia's spying on Indonesia moved from the palace to the streets on Thursday with the hardline "Red and White Brigade" rallying outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta and Australian flags being burnt in the capital and the student city Yogyakarta. 

 Outside the front of the Australian embassy, several hundred protesters gathered in paramilitary uniform, carrying signs including ‘‘Mr Abbott is stupid’’, ‘‘Abbott you hurt my heart’’ and ‘‘Boycott Australian products’’.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/spying-scandal-australian-flags-burnt-as-protests-heat-up-in-indonesia-20131121-2xx9k.html#ixzz2lG0WN8iB

Twitter ego-fest has deeply damaged Tony Abbott

How else to explain a stream of infantile and racially dubious references likening Indonesia's foreign minister to a 1970s ''Pilipino [sic] porn star'', suggesting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono uses a ''weird-ass calendar'' (''FFS SBY''), and publishing pictures of the Bali bombers?

The fact that some of this material was tweeted and then deleted is probably instructive.

In damage control mode, the pollster with a penchant for poison, argued after the fact on Thursday that he had not been referring to anyone in particular with his porn star reference. Seriously? Why did it refer to ''a bloke'' and why, for that matter, was it deleted?

After Fairfax Media reported his tweets, some fellow travellers of the voluble Mr Textor defended his comments, which of course is their right, but they went further, slamming this company for publishing them.

This is a curious response given that Textor's observations were intended precisely to be published. That was the point. Entirely. And the views were volunteered as well.

Mr Textor can have had no other intention than to publish his opinions for the consumption of all and sundry.

The idea of others complaining about them being noticed surely misses the point.

Or rather, it reveals another point.

That the comments are in fact distinctly embarrassing – especially for the Coalition government with which he is so intimately connected.

The challenge now for Prime Minister Abbott is what to do about them.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/mark-textors-succumbing-to-twitter-egofest-has-deeply-damaged-tony-abbott-20131121-2xxf4.html#ixzz2lG1dwbaX

What to do about them? Wear a paper bag over his head? Tony Abbott, that is....

read also the last straw: http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/phone-tapping-sbys-wife-the-last-straw-20131121-2xx4e.html