Texas Department of Agriculture website hacked to show photo of Iran’s slain commander
As Texas faces attempted cybersecurity attacks from Iran, a federal investigation is reviewing a Tuesday incident in which the Texas Department of Agriculture’s website was hacked to display a photo of Iran’s top military commander who was slain in a U.S. attack last week.
A group of self-described Iranian hackers placed an image of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top military commander killed last week in a U.S. drone strike approved by President Donald Trump, on the Texas Department of Agriculture’s website along with the phrases “Hacked by Iranian Hacker” and “Hacked by Shield Iran,” Vice News first reported Tuesday.
Mark Loeffler, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Agriculture, said in an email Tuesday night that the website was not hacked, but defaced — a term used to describe cyberattacks that change the visual appearance of a site. The TDA website has since been restored.
“No data of any kind was lost,” Loeffler wrote. “TDA staff addressed issue quickly. Attack over but remains under review by state and federal agencies.”
According to the Houston Chronicle, the FBI is investigating, and Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller told the Chronicle that he suspects the attack may have been done by youths participating in a challenge, rather than from Iranian hackers.
An FBI spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.
The Texas Department of Information Resources learned of the incident Tuesday. TDA’s website is not hosted on the state network that the agency monitors, Christi Koenig Brisky, a spokeswoman for the department, wrote in an email Wednesday.
“DIR is not investigating this incident but has offered support to the Department of Agriculture by providing subject matter guidance,” Brisky said. “We understand there is a federal investigation into the matter and cannot comment further at this time.”
At a Domestic Terrorism Task Force meeting Tuesday at the Texas Capitol, Gov. Greg Abbott said the Texas Department of Information Resources has seen a spike in attempted cyberattacks from Iran on state agency networks at the rate of about 10,000 per minute in the last 48 hours.
Amanda Crawford, the executive director of the Texas Department of Information Resources, told reporters Tuesday after the task force meeting that none of the probes had been successful to the department’s knowledge.
“We know that there might have been a federal website that was defaced by someone who was with pro-Iranian sentiments. We have heard that their might have been a state agency website that was also looked at that way,” Crawford said.
Crawford declined to name the agency at the time, citing it was outside of the network monitored by DIR and that information was still being gathered.
Amid simmering tensions between the U.S. and Iran, a federal government website was also defaced over the weekend to show pro-Iran messages, according to the New York Times. And early Wednesday, Iran brought forward a major escalation against the U.S., firing a series of ballistic missiles at two military bases in Iraq housing American troops, according to the Associated Press.
This story was originally published January 8, 2020 at 10:24 AM.
