Police are investigating after the University of New Brunswick Student Union website was hacked by people who used references to ISIS.
“Team System Dz” claimed to have hacked the website on Monday, saying “I love you ISIS” at the top of the page.
It went on to say, “…the state of Islam and the list expands, God willing…this time is a time of Islam and victory and lift the injustice for Muslims and the elimination of America and the allies of the infidels will not keep silent…”
The university’s student union learned of the hacking around 8:30 p.m. Monday.
“One of our executives tried to sign on and realized what had happened,” says Nicole Saulnier, the vice-president of external affairs for the UNBSU.
The union contacted its web provider and, after two hours of work, the website was back up and running.
However, a message on the website indicates it is currently “down for maintenance.”
The UNBSU contacted Fredericton police, who say they are investigating the complaint and taking it seriously. The RCMP have also been made aware of the incident.
Fredericton police say they’re not aware that any other websites have been hacked and the UNBSU says it isn’t sure why the site was targeted.
Meanwhile, David Shipley, who works at the university’s IT department, has been offering advice to the student union on how to make their website more secure.
“This is not a highly sophisticated attack,” says Shipley. “The most sophisticated kinds of attacks you never hear about, or you don’t hear about until after the fact.”
Shipley says the incident should serve as a reminder for local businesses to contact their web providers to ensure appropriate security measures are being taken to avoid being hacked.
Saulnier says students shouldn’t be concerned about a breach of personal information, as they don’t store that kind of information on the website.
But some students are expressing concerns that a website put in place to help people was used to promote propaganda supporting a terrorist group.
“Even if it’s just a joke, it’s in really poor taste,” says one student.
“It wasn’t something I expected to happen at UNB, and odd that it would happen on the students union page too,” says another.
A team of about 120 members of the Canadian Armed Forces will depart for the Middle East this week as Canada gears up to join the fight against ISIS in Iraq.
The team is responsible for setting up the infrastructure support needed for the launch of Canada's air mission.
The House of Commons has approved a motion to have Canada join the U.S.-led airstrikes against ISIS targets in Iraq for a period of up to six months. Canada's mission will be based out of Kuwait.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Nick Moore and CTVNews.ca
