Tremble in fear, America, as Daesh-bags scrawl cyber-graffiti on .gov webpages no one visits

A crew of useful idiots called Team System Dz defaced US government and business websites over the weekend in the name of medieval terror bastards Daesh (aka the Islamic State). Sites that fell to the gang include .gov webpages in Ohio, such as the pages for governor John Kasich and his wife, and the Ohio Department of …

[Anonymous Coward]

So basically, the Josh Mandel campaign website must be...

"Vote for me, because terror, and Muslims."

Its sad, but this reasoning must actually be appealing to a large number of voters.

[Mark 85]

Re: So basically, the Josh Mandel campaign website must be...

I'd say that currently it only is appealing to a sub-set of one party of voters given the verbage he used. Just another "Freedom, "M'erica, Hell Yes" muppet.

[jake]

Frankly, as a tax paying, voting Yank ...

... I'm more afraid of my current government than I am now, or ever have been, afraid of so-called "terrorists". I suspect this will be the case for the foreseeable future, alas.

[a_yank_lurker]

Re: Frankly, as a tax paying, voting Yank ...

Agreed follow comrade. I hope to get the corner room in the gulag.

[Anonymous Coward]

Or...

Was this really an "Islamic terrorist attack"? As stated in the article, all it takes is clueless/skilless Sys Admins (possibly outsourced to India or perhaps not) misconfiguring something they should have properly configured, to make it easy for some script kiddy to do this. Having taken numerous calls from Server Sys Admins claiming hardware failure, when Server Logs proved it was in fact misconfiguration that caused the problem, many of the Sys Admins getting hired (Both domestic and foreign/outsourced) have credentials but actually lack the skills to do the job. When you feel the need to call Server Hardware Support about Configuration or Software issue, then admit you don't know how to configure something and ask for help from Tech Support (WHO DOES NOT WORK FOR YOUR COMPANY AND SHOULD NEVER BE ASKED HOW TO CONFIGURE ANYTHING ON YOUR COMPANY NETWORK), that = CLUELESS...

[frank ly]

Re: Or...

"All the sites were back up and running on Monday after IT staff had earned themselves a tasty chunk of overtime."

I just noticed that. I'm not saying anything; I'm just saying.

[Cynic_999]

Re: Or...

In my days as a telephone guy, a colleague used to dial a trunk prefix on a line from his local unmanned electromechanical sub-exchange, and then rapidly dial "1" many times. In the sub-exchange, the mechanical trunk dial repeater would get incoming digits faster than it was sending them until its simple mechanical "memory" (A disk with holes and pins) was full. It then brought up an alarm and my colleague would get a call-out on his pager. He would then stop dialling, the repeater would catch up and clear the alarm, he logged the fault as fixed and got a nice bit of overtime pay without leaving the pub.

[MooJohn]

The best part is that the script kiddie group is allowed to maintain a Facebook page. Spewing hate and the overthrow of half the world's governments? Facebook has a template for that! Don't forget to join their mailing list so you can get your jihad supplies at wholesale prices.

[Your alien overlord - fear me]

So the US is responsible for all the bloodshed caused by the IS wankers executing civilians in the Middle East?

[Alister]

Absolutely, and the fact that said wankers destroyed an historic Mosque just proves what devout Muslims they really are.

[Antron Argaiv]

...said wankers destroyed an historic Mosque just proves what devout Muslims...

It was necessary to destroy the Mosque in order to save it.

// or some such nonsense

[Suricou Raven]

The mosque was for the wrong type of Muslim.

Much like Catholics and protestants. They had the same holy book, followed the same god, and were all very devout. But still took turns executing each other as heretics.

[John Savard]

Concern, if not panic, is warranted

You never know. Next time, they might modify the site so that it injects ransomware into people's computers.

Sites should be designed so that they can not be hacked. Period. Ever.

These sites were not so designed. That mistake should not be repeated.

[A. Coatsworth]

Re: Concern, if not panic, is warranted

Yeah, and banks should be designed so the can't be robbed. Period. Ever.

And locks should be designed so the can't be picked. Period. Ever.

And cars should be designed so the can't be stolen. Period. Ever.

And... And...

It sounds lovely, but there is not way to protect everything from a *very* determined idiot.

[John Smith 19]

A high threat level is the handmaiden of repressive and intrusive laws

And of course if the threat level is not naturally high enough it must be "encouraged."

[billybobnomates]

dotnetnuke

No news site has yet pointed out the fact that all these websites are running on DNN. I doubt very much that's a coincidence.

[billybobnomates]

Re: dotnetnuke

version 6.0.0 as well, which has an admin bypass vulnerability.

Time to update Ohio.

[Eddy Ito]

Hmmm...

The group name is kind of catchy but honestly Team System Dz just isn't working for me. They should shorten it and give it a tweak. How about 'Dizzy Daesh Z'? Yeah, I think that will work.

Yo, yo, yo, Dizzy Daesh Z in da howse!

Oh yeah, that's it fo shure.

[B*stardTintedGlasses]

To quote NOFX:

"We call the heartland / not very smart land,

IQs are very low but threat levels are high...."