Hackers from Saudi Arabia managed to hack into the official website for North Miami, Florida. The hacktivist group, named “Group Hp-Hack” managed to gain access of the site by injecting a file that they named “x.txt” on the website. The hackers, who call themselves “NeT-DeViL” and “Dr-TaiGaR” left the following message on the website through the text file:
Hacked By: Group Hp-Hack ===> “NeT-DeViL & Dr-TaiGaR” Saudi Arabia Hackers
The cache of the hacked page can be found here. The website was still hacked at the time that this article was published (March 5, 2016). The North Miami website is used for many functions for the population of North Miami, including housing an event calendar, access to branches of government, and many resident resources. The defacement could have a pretty dramatic effect on people trying to access the site.
NeT-DeViL & Dr-TaiGaR Have a Penchant for These Kinds of Special Defacements on High Profile Sites
After looking at these hacker’s archives on zone-h, our investigative reporters discovered a trend for “special defacements.” While most of the sites that these hackers have attacked have been high profile sites, many of them focused on American sites that operate on Windows 2008 servers. Additionally, they seemed to be focused on the governmental pages within the counties in different states within the United States (last year).
We aren’t quite sure why the hackers hacked the North Miami site, but it doesn’t seem like the attacks were politically motivated or emotionally charged. It would appear that these site breaches are solely for having fun.