The city of Fairbanks website has been restored after hackers briefly took it over yesterday (Tues.). City spokeswoman Amber Courtney says a foreign group appears to have pirated the site.
“It was a black screen with some red writing and it was just a lot of ramblings about who they were, but there was no message or call to action call to action.”
Courtney says another Fairbanks agency website was previously targeted by the same group, which has a Facebook page listing sites they’ve hacked. Courtney adds that it does not appear the group has any connection to, or gripe with, the city of Fairbanks.
“They claim to be affiliated with a particular religion, and they call themselves commandos of this particular religion. Our preference is not to release the name of this r group because, that would be giving them exactly what they wanted which was attention.”
Courtney emphasizes that the hackers did not access any city files, which are on separate more secure in house data base. She says the city website is currently hosted by an outside company, but the city is reworking the site, with plans to host it in house. ###