Turkish Hacker takes down Teton County website
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DRIGGS — A self-proclaimed Turkish hacker succeeded in disrupting the Teton County website on Feb. 15.
The hacker replaced the home landing page with a picture of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish flag and the message “Hacked by ||Jack Sparrow||.”
“I have no idea why they would come after little Teton County Idaho. We’re such a small place,” said Teton County Emergency Manager Greg Adams. “It was the first time we’ve ever been hacked to my knowledge.”
Adams said the attack was an SQL injection and only infected the website for about an hour without doing any further damage.
“They tried to throw on some scripts, but we caught them and got rid of them,” explained Adams. “They didn’t get anywhere near the county network, it was just our website hoster in Michigan.”
Adams said the group behind the incident was known for having hacked other targets like Dominoes Pizza and even the Vatican.
The incident should stand as a useful warning to everyone how vulnerable the internet is to attack.
“Keep up on passwords and firewalls,” Adams explained. “There’s a lot of hackers out there.”
This article was originally published in the Teton Valley News. It is used here with permission.