POLITICS

John Kasich's website among those in Ohio hacked with pro-Islamic State message

Chrissie Thompson
Cincinnati Enquirer
Gov. John Kasich

Several state of Ohio websites, including that of Gov. John Kasich, were hacked Sunday with a message that supported the Islamic State and opposed President Donald Trump.

The websites had been taken offline by Sunday afternoon, but reports from Cleveland.com and CNN had captured a black background earlier Sunday bearing the message: "Anti: Govt all word. You will be held accountable Trump, you and all your people for every drop of blood flowing in Muslim countries. I love Islamic state."

Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, a Republican who has made rhetoric about terrorism a cornerstone of his bid for U.S. Senate, also captured a screen shot of the message, saying on Facebook: "Radical Islam infiltrating the heartland." 

 

The message on the state websites said they had been hacked by Team System Dz. A group with that name has claimed responsibility for past pro-IS hacking.

The anti-IS message also made it onto the website of Ohio's Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, CNN and Cleveland.com reported. On Sunday afternoon, that site read: "The website is currently down for maintenance. Please standby for further updates."

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Among several other state websites that bore the maintenance message Sunday were that of first lady Karen Kasich and the Department of Medicaid.

Late Sunday, the state's information technology staff was working to restore its computer systems, said Tom Hoyt, a spokesman for Ohio's Department of Administrative Services. 

"All affected servers have been taken off line and we are investigating how these hackers were able to deface these websites," Hoyt said in a statement. "We also are working with law enforcement to better understand what happened.”