Pro-ISIS group attacks IOW government website
Published 10:02 am Saturday, January 17, 2015
ISLE OF WIGHT COURTHOUSE
A group claiming to be allied with ISIS took over the Isle of Wight County government website sometime on Friday, leaving behind messages and videos.
A screenshot of another website that Team System DZ has claimed to have hacked on Jan. 14. Courtesy zone-h.
Don Robertson, the county’s public information officer, said officials were made aware of the hack sometime around 9:30 p.m. on Friday.
“We are not sure who the individual or group is, but there was information advocating ISIS,” he said. “It pretty much flaunted people to ISIS, as opposed to our normal information.”
Robertson said from there officials reported the threat to the information technology staff, and they, in turn, reported it to the third party vendor, who hosts the website. By 10:30 p.m., Robertson said their website was up and running as normal.
“They were able to go in and delete the bad information,” he said of IOW’s IT staff.
As Friday was a state holiday, Lee-Jackson Day, the county government staff and officials had the day off, so no one is sure exactly what time the hack occurred, Robertson said.
Team System Dz claimed to be responsible for the hack on the website. Geektime.com has identified Team System Dz as a group of anti-Israeli Arab teenagers. According to zone-h, the group has been responsible for defacing more that 2,800 websites around the world, as of Jan. 15.
The content the group typically leaves behind includes pro-ISIS literature, pictures of scimitars, count downs in blood, videos and blaring Islamic music.
“There was some information in Arabic or some other similar language — it was clear the site had been hacked,” Robertson said. “I don’t recall any pictures, but there was a box for video. I didn’t click the video.”
This is the second time the site has been hacked in this method, and Robertson said he believes the previous time was around Thanksgiving. He said he was not sure if it was by the same group.
ISIS, which has renamed itself Islamic State, is reportedly responsible for beheadings and other terroristic actions in the aim of creating an Islamic State across the Sunni areas of Iraq and Syria.
Isle of Wight County’s website is located at http://www.co.isle-of-wight.va.us/.
