Arizona’s department website shuts down after hacking attack

One after another, Middle East Cyber Army, a hacking group, is attacking government websites of various countries.

After Myanmar’s Ministry of Mines, the hacker group has hacked the website of Arizona’s Department of Weights and Measures’. As a result, the website has been shut down for the last one week.

The hackers left a message on the website, “Hacked by Middle East Cyber Army” and slogans like such as, “In Allah we trust. For Allah we work. Death to Israel. Free Palestine. Jerusalem is ours” along with a masked figure in front of the Dome of the Rock.

Andy Tobin, director at the department, confirmed that the department’s website was hacked on Sunday.

Today, the department’s website is still down for maintenance.

“The web-site you were attempting to access is currently undergoing maintenance activities. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please retry again later. Thank you for your patience,” the website read.

According to Tobin, soon after they got to know about the hacking attack, they shut down their website and database.

He said that the agency got its backup database running on Tuesday so its investigators can continue their work.

Tobin said the agency is investigating the matter collaborating with the Arizona Department of Administration. Similarly, they have also informed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about the hacking attack.

The department is still trying to sort out the issue. It has yet to be determined whether the department to resume its website or shift its components over to the Arizona Department of Agriculture, which is scheduled to take over many of the department’s duties next year.

The hacking group had hacked many other websites like in December the group hacked the website for a school district in Little Rock, Ark. It took over the website for the small Quebec town of Terrasse-Vaudreuil in January. Similarly, in May, it targeted Auckland University in New Zealand. And in April, it hacked Art and Sol, a Scottsdale-based performing arts program for children.