SOUTH WAYNE - The website for the Village of South Wayne was hacked sometime last month, according to village board members.
Village Trustee Dale Carolan said the village clerk is working on getting the site unlocked, which may cost the village some money. The site server is located in California.
"We are completely locked out of it," Carolan said.
The organization taking responsibility for the takeover of southwayne.us, according to its posting on the site, has the initial appearance of Anonymous, a loosely associated network of hackers that attacks government, religious and corporate websites. Its message is signed, "We Are Muslims" and "Soldier Of Allah."
The Lafayette County Sheriff's Department is investigating the hack and has notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation, after The Monroe Times notified the agency of the hack on Monday, June 10.
"We're working with the village and website provider," said Sgt. Joe Thompson. "It's kind of a complicated ordeal."
The hack may be cause for concern about terrorism, he said.
The South Wayne website was used by the village to post agendas, committee and board minutes, and departmental information for the village, as well as the fire department and EMS, according to Carolan.
The site now shows a black background with a picture of the familiar Anonymous logo, a Guy Fawkes mask - a smiling, white face with red cheeks, a wide mustache upturned at both ends and a thin, pointed goatee - followed by the phrase #OpUSA.
The message condemns the U.S. and Israel for being "Zionist" and "(liking) killing innocent people especially moslem [sic]." The message also states, "I know the secret of Boston Bomb" and "our god is Allah."
The message ends with "#Zone Injector Team #Anonymous Indonesian #Indonesian Defacer" and then a phrase similar to other Anonymous posts, "We are Legion | We Fight for Freedom | We Stand for Justice | Expect Us."
Carolan said the message "didn't concern anybody."
One option the village has is to abandon the website, he said. Right now, the work to get the site unlocked is at a standstill, he added.
A random Internet search for other municipalities with the (dot)us suffix did not show them as affected by any hacking.
The website darlington.us was blocked as a malicious website. However, the City of Darlington uses www.darlingtonwi.org as its website address.
-Reporter Katjusa Cisar contributed to this story.
Village Trustee Dale Carolan said the village clerk is working on getting the site unlocked, which may cost the village some money. The site server is located in California.
"We are completely locked out of it," Carolan said.
The organization taking responsibility for the takeover of southwayne.us, according to its posting on the site, has the initial appearance of Anonymous, a loosely associated network of hackers that attacks government, religious and corporate websites. Its message is signed, "We Are Muslims" and "Soldier Of Allah."
The Lafayette County Sheriff's Department is investigating the hack and has notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation, after The Monroe Times notified the agency of the hack on Monday, June 10.
"We're working with the village and website provider," said Sgt. Joe Thompson. "It's kind of a complicated ordeal."
The hack may be cause for concern about terrorism, he said.
The South Wayne website was used by the village to post agendas, committee and board minutes, and departmental information for the village, as well as the fire department and EMS, according to Carolan.
The site now shows a black background with a picture of the familiar Anonymous logo, a Guy Fawkes mask - a smiling, white face with red cheeks, a wide mustache upturned at both ends and a thin, pointed goatee - followed by the phrase #OpUSA.
The message condemns the U.S. and Israel for being "Zionist" and "(liking) killing innocent people especially moslem [sic]." The message also states, "I know the secret of Boston Bomb" and "our god is Allah."
The message ends with "#Zone Injector Team #Anonymous Indonesian #Indonesian Defacer" and then a phrase similar to other Anonymous posts, "We are Legion | We Fight for Freedom | We Stand for Justice | Expect Us."
Carolan said the message "didn't concern anybody."
One option the village has is to abandon the website, he said. Right now, the work to get the site unlocked is at a standstill, he added.
A random Internet search for other municipalities with the (dot)us suffix did not show them as affected by any hacking.
The website darlington.us was blocked as a malicious website. However, the City of Darlington uses www.darlingtonwi.org as its website address.
-Reporter Katjusa Cisar contributed to this story.