Several United States government websites were hacked by hacker group Team System DZ which allegedly has ties to the terrorist organization, Islamic State. The page displayed anti-Trump slogans and threats. The hacked websites included Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, Casino Control, Ohio First Lady, Office of Workforce Transformation, Office of Health Transformation, Inspector General, Ohio governor, and Medicaid.
Every visitor to the website was greeted with an Arabic symbol with a pitch black page with an Islamic prayer played in the background. Also, a line appeared on every page, that said, “Hacked by Team System DZ.” The text on the landing page read: “You will be held accountable Trump, you and all your people for every drop of blood flowing in Muslim countries”, and “I Love Islamic State.”
All the affected agencies were working on resolving the issue. Tom Hoyt, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Administrative Services, in a statement, said, “All affected servers have been taken offline and we are investigating how these hackers were able to deface these websites. We also are working with law enforcement to better understand what happened.”
Team System DZ has been involved in numerous hacks including Canadian food truck’s sandwich site, University of New Brunswick’s student union site, and even an English rugby team’s site.
Joseph Marquette, President and Founder of Accellis Technology Group in Cleveland, in an interview with WKYC called the incident “more of something called hacktivism.” She said, “they’re just looking to promote their own cause, create some measure of fear, but if they were truly looking to steal information or data, odds are they were gonna do it in a much more subversive and secretive way.”
