Topic: Group hacks into schools' Web site

[Samker]

St. Tammany school officials are investigating an international computer-hacking incident after a Turkish political group apparently gained access to the district's Web site and left its calling card Sunday.

District spokeswoman Meredith Mendez said a group called Ayyildiz claimed responsibility for the breach in a message, which appeared on the Web site "for a very short time" before school officials noticed the inappropriate content and took it down.

"At no point was our system server involved in this action," said Mendez, who said the group did not gain access to any school records or personal information.

"We've tightened our security measures and we're working with local authorities to figure out how they got into" the system, she said.

A school principal first noticed the message on Sunday afternoon and alerted school officials, who shut down the Web site and removed the missive, Mendez said. She did not know exactly what was posted.

"We were able to clean it up, and we're now back online," Mendez said.

The nationalist group, which also goes by "AyYildiz Team," has taken responsibility for hacking into the Web sites of numerous European companies and organizations, and last summer it loaded Ayyildiz-related content onto a European Union official's Web site, according to news reports.

School officials have no idea why they wound up in the crosshairs of the group, who often leave pro-Turkish statements on other people's Web sites.

"We do not know why we were targeted," Mendez said.

(New OrleansNet LLC)