Pro-ISIS Activists Take Over New York Healthcare Website
Healthcare and Public Health // United States
Hundreds of people in the tri-state area who logged on to the Westchester Health website on May 21 and May 22 became concerned about the security of their personal information.
The site displayed a webpage controlled by a hacker that contained an image of a flag of the terrorist group ISIS and declared “I love you ISIS.”
An entity called the Moroccan Revolution Team took credit for the defacement.
“Cybercrime is the number two threat” that the FBI investigates internationally, said former bureau agent Manuel Gomez, adding that the number one threat is terrorism. “This has a nexis to terrorism,” he said about the hacking.
Gomez also said it had “never been seen before” where a local healthcare provider’s website had been breached by an ISIS-related or sympathizing entity.
The Westchester Health site was restored, but only after it featured the Moroccan Revolution Team home page for sixteen hours.
Westchester Health’s president and CEO, Peter Mercurio, said that the company’s homepage is strictly a marketing site, and that patients’ personal information can only be accessed by clicking through to a password-protected portal.
“I’m annoyed that this goes on,” said Mercurio about hacking in general, and on his company’s website. “I’m concerned about the well being of our patients. To that, I can say no damage was done.”