Websites hacked with pro-Islamic State message

Ohio governor, agencies were main targets of the attacks

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Government websites, many of them in Ohio, were hacked Sunday with a message supportive of the Islamic State terrorist group.

A message posted on the website of Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich said, “You will be held accountable Trump, you and all your people for every drop of blood flowing in Muslim countries.” The message, left by “Team System Dz,” also ended, “I love the Islamic state.”

The same message also infiltrated government websites in Brookhaven, N.Y., and Howard County, Md.

Several other Ohio government websites were hacked, including that of first lady Karen Kasich, Medicaid, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction and the Casino Control Commission.

“All affected servers have been taken offline and we are investigating how these hackers were able to deface these websites,” Tom Hoyt, chief communications officer for Ohio’s Department of Administrative Services, said. “We also are working with law enforcement to better understand what happened.”

He said the hacking in Ohio happened at about 11 a.m. EDT. He hoped the websites would be up and running sometime today. The Brookhaven and Howard County websites also remained down on Sunday. The hack is part of ongoing cyberterrorism that has impacted governments and corporations across the globe.

Some see these types of hacks — sometimes called “defacement” — as simply a nuisance, though they have been disruptive to work and government life.

But others see cause for alarm. “Wake up freedom-loving Americans. Radical Islam infiltrating the heartland,” Josh Mandel, the Ohio treasurer and a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, said in a tweet Sunday.

Authors of the website “Cryptosphere,” which tracks hackers worldwide, have detailed dozens, if not hundreds, of similar hacks in recent years by the so-called Team System DZ, which they called a “pro-ISIS hacker crew” and claim are based in Algeria.

Impacted websites, they said, have included those for a synagogue in Florida, the student union at the University of New Brunswick in Canada, and a number of websites on Wordpress.