The eleven state government websites that were hacked over the weekend are back online today. The hackers had posted messages against President Trump and for the Islamic State on the websites, including Gov. John Kasich’s.
Ohio State University cyber security expert Helen Patton says the Sunday morning attacks didn’t appear to be the destructive kind that have been blamed for shutting down businesses or exposing confidential information.
“The kind of thing that we saw would be classified as “hacktivism” which is just an overly used term. But it’s really just about making a statement. It’s similar to people standing in front of the Statehouse waving banners,” he said.
Patton says the state’s response to take the affected servers off line was the correct one. The state continues to investigate who was responsible for the hacking. Along with the Ohio websites, government sites in New York and Maryland were also hit.
