Islamic State Supporters Hack Ohio Governor John Kasich’s State Website

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 24: Ohio Governor John Kasich (R-OH), speaks to reporters after
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Alex Clark

An Islamic State-supporting hacker group replaced Ohio Governor John Kasich’s website with a jihadist message on Sunday.

The message on John Kasich’s site read, in part, “You will be held accountable Trump, you and all your people for every drop of blood flowing in Muslim countries. I Love Islamic state,” according to WOSU Public Media.

The pro-ISIS hacking group “Team System Dz” placed the same message on several government websites across Ohio and the northeast this weekend, among them the state government’s main website. Radical Islamist messages completely replaced the original content.

Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel tweeted about the attacks on Sunday morning, the first public confirmation that the Ohio government was aware of the situation. By Sunday afternoon, government officials had taken down the propaganda.

Local government agencies in New York and Maryland also suffered attacks from the group identifying itself as Team System Dz. The government website for Howard County, Maryland, was one of the targets successfully hacked by Team System Dz, Fox 5 DC reports. After Fox 5 uncovered the hack, they reported it to Howard County which responded with the following:

Thank you to those who noticed that the Howard County Government website may have been hacked. Our IT team was alerted to the problem, has identified the issue and expects to have it resolved shortly. We apologize for any inconvenience.

The website of Brookhaven, New York, was also hacked. Officials took down the website in response to the incident, according to News 12 Long Island.

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement in response to the hack in Brookhaven:

While we are still waiting on more intel as to this pro-ISIS hack, I have been in touch with Brookhaven Town Deputy Supervisor and Councilman Dan Panico and offered to assist in any way possible with regards to securing necessary support and resources from the federal government. I will continue to do anything in my power to improve cyber security and protect against other threats facing our nation at home and abroad.

The Islamic State and its supporting groups have used hacking as a means to spread their propaganda in the past. On June, 21, The Islamic State hacked the Argentine military’s website, leaving the message: “We are the Islamic State. This is a threat. ISIS (or, in English, Islamic State) has arrived in Argentina and you will soon know more about us.”

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