Large-Scale Cyberattack Has Hit Institutions and the Media in Georgia

About 2,000 websites in Georgia, including those of the president, the courts and the media, are at the center of a major cyberattack, BGNES reported.

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili's website was "attacked by hackers this afternoon," her AFP spokeswoman said. "Law enforcement is investigating the incident".

The Georgia News Agency reported that the website of the courts of general jurisdiction in Georgia, as well as the websites of a number of government agencies, non-governmental organizations and media agencies, were also affected by the cyber attack.

The attack resulted in a photo of former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili captioning "I'll be back!"

Saakashvili lives in self-imposed exile in Ukraine after his second term as president ends in 2013. The fiercely pro-Western reformer and former leader has been wanted in Tbilisi on charges of abuse of power, which he denies.

A number of former Saakashvili administration officials are in jail after his party lost in 2012 parliamentary elections to the current governing Georgian Dream party, led by oligarch Bidzin Ivanishvili.

Georgia's opposition parties and Western allies have condemned the prosecution as a political witch hunt.