Salisbury, Md. CBS affiliate WBOC says a group called the Cyber Caliphate took over its website and twitter account.
The station was quick to point out the site was not hacked, but the victim of a cyber attack.
>UPDATE:The Desk reports, the Albuquerque Journal was also hit by a similar attack. The avatar and header image on the paper’s Twitter page were replaced with images similar to those seen on the WBOC website.
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“Around 11 o’clock we saw that our twitter password had been changed and we were locked out,” said Ethan Holland, WBOC director of Digital Media. “Then around 11:30 we saw that our website had been modified.”
Modified with pictures appearing to support the Islamic militant group ISIS. Web Editor Kye Parsons found himself in the center of it all. “We took as quick action as we possibly could,” Parsons says.
While the reaction was swift, the damage was done. Links were shared with the public through WBOC.com and twitter. Holland says WBOC was used as a mouthpiece with information that wasn’t theirs. General Manager Craig Jahelka says it was important to be proactive. “We needed to let everyone know this was not our doing,” he said, “and we are doing everything we can to correct the situation.”
The Salisbury Police Department was contacted. They passed the information along to the FBI, which has been speaking with WBOC about the incident. The FBI says similar attacks have been quietly happening to media companies across the United States.