KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Jamaica Information Service (JIS) has confirmed that its website was last night attacked by “hacktivists”.
The government agency said in a statement last evening that despite the attack, their system was not breached and sensitive data was intact.
“We can confirm that our site has been attacked by ‘hacktivists’ or persons masquerading as such; however, the aggressor’s attempts at breaching our system did not result in access to sensitive data but was constrained to ‘surface defacement’. Our security team is undertaking recovery and reinforcement procedures as we speak and the JIS website will resume normal function in short order,” the statement said.
Probable Islamic State militants hacked into the website last evening, forcing a shutdown of the site.
Up to 10:00 pm Monday, people who visited the site came upon a message which read:
“Hacked by Team System Dz: I am Muslim & I love jihad. I love Islamic state <3”
The message also stated: “Message to all the peoples of the world and especially to governments, Islamic State List to restore the rights of Muslims who have been killed by your governments savage and unjust, Islamic state will restore dignity for Muslims. Will purge the land of the Muslims from the hypocrites infidels. It intervenes you will equip you to dwell in cemeteries. Op USA & Israel. Hackers Islamic State/.2015” Facebook”.
By 10:00 pm, the landing page for the website was blank, except for a message stating “hacked by holako”.
The website has since been restored.
