Idaho Legislature website hacked by Italian hacktivist group
Published at | Updated at
BOISE — The websites for the Idaho Legislature and Idaho’s iCourt portal were hacked Friday morning by a hacktivist group called AnonPlus Italia.
From about 11 to 11:10 a.m., both websites were replaced with a black screen, and a manifesto written in Italian about government and media slavery. (The entirety of the text is posted at the end of this article.)
AnonPlus is a sporadically active branch of Anonymous, a loosely connected group of hackers, which claim responsibility for online hacks that take place around the globe. AnonPlus was originally associated with a social network for Anonymous, but that network was later hacked by another group and ultimately abandoned. The name “AnonPlus” has been used occasionally in association with others hacks since then. It appears the most recent iteration of the group began activity this year.
Italian media reported this week that AnonPlus had performed a seemingly identical hack — with the same message — on the K-9 Web Protection website, which is part of the Symantec antivirus company. K-9 Web Protection filters internet content.
Italian media also reported the group hacked Italian politicians’ websites and databases during an election held in February.
It’s unclear why AnonPlus would target a site in Idaho using a message written in Italian; however, the AnonPlus website is claiming responsibility for the hacks of both Idaho sites.
The manifesto, when translated, said that no data was stolen and that only the homepage had been changed.
“AnonPlus does not act for personal or political interests, has no leaders, moves for the interest of the people and to restore sovereignty to the people,” the manifesto read.
The Idaho Legislature website was completely down after the 10 minutes it displayed the AnonPlus message, and it was back up by 11:30 p.m.
Jeff Weak, Idaho Director of Information Security, tells EastIdahoNews.com the hack was possible due to a exploit in a third party application installed on the state websites. Weak declined to identify the application, but says the vulnerability has been fixed.
Weak also confirmed no data or personal information was compromised during the hack.
Idaho gets ‘pwned’
This is not the first time government networks and websites have been breached recently in Idaho. (The hacks below do not appear to be linked to AnonPlus.)
- February 2017: A hacker took down Teton County’s website.
- March 2017: Bingham County was victim to a ransomware attack.
- February 2018: Truckers’ personal information may have been compromised after two email accounts at the Idaho Transportation Department were hacked.
- March 2018: Personal information of about 170,000 job seekers was exposed after the Idaho Department of Labor was hacked.
The translation of the AnonPlus Italia manifesto
1. We are AnonPlus and this is our manifesto.
2. Every person who wants to defend his freedom of information, the freedom of the people and the emancipation of the latter from the slavery of the media and those who govern us, who uses us as a tool to implement its dirty ends, is already part of AnonPlus.
Every person who has the will to act is welcome.
AnonPlus fights abuse, inequity, corruption, manipulation, religions and anything else put in place by governments, politicians, religions and groups of financial power to the detriment of the people.
3. AnonPlus has a space for sharing ideas open to all: …
4. AnonPlus spreads ideas without censorship, creates spaces to directly disseminate, through mass defacing, news that in the media managed for the use and consumption of those who control there are no space, in order to restore dignity to the function of the media.
AnonPlus offline sites that actively contribute to the control of the masses, which, manipulating information and opinions, create false realities.
AnonPlus does not act for personal or political interests, has no leaders, moves for the interest of the people and to restore sovereignty to the people;
AnonPlus is open to every proposal of the people, for the people.
5. The day that these objectives will be achieved AnonPlus will cease to exist.
(This part in English.)
No war – No religions – No politicals – No financial power – for a Better World
WE ARE LEGION
WE DON’T FORGET
WE DON’T FORGIVE
EXPECT US!
ANONPLUS ITALIA
(This in Italian.)
P.S. No data has been stolen or deleted, only the home page has changed. We are not criminals, we are AnonPlus
— Translation by Google Translate. Title of webpage read, “Anonplus Italia”