Govt sites in Ohio, Maryland hacked with proIslamic State messages

CHICAGO: Ohio officials have restored 11 government websites that were hacked with a message purporting to be supportive of the Islamic State terrorist group.

The Department of Administrative Services said affected websites were restored by Monday. They’d been hacked on Sunday with a message that included: “I love the Islamic state.”

The Department of Public Safety says the FBI and US Department of Homeland Security are investigating the hacking.

It affected websites for the governor and his wife, the lieutenant governor and the inspector general, as well as Ohio’s Medicaid and prisons agencies. The list also included sites for Ohio’s casino and facilities commissions, the offices of Health Transformation and Workforce Transformation, and the government streamlining effort LeanOhio.

The same message infiltrated government websites in Brookhaven, New York, and Howard County, Maryland.

Posted on the websites was a message from a group calling itself Team System DZ, vowing revenge against US President Donald Trump.

“You will be held accountable Trump, you and all your people for every drop of blood flowing in Muslim countries,” it read, adding: “I Love Islamic state.”

The messages were written in gold lettering against a black backdrop.

The hacked websites also displayed the Muslim profession of faith written in white lettering in Arabic, proclaiming that “there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the prophet of Allah.”

The message posted on Ohio governor Kasich’s website also played an Islamic call to prayer. A website for Howard County, Maryland, several miles outside Washington DC, was also affected. AGENCIES