A Frodsham town councillor has criticised those responsible for what appeared to be a politically-motivated cyber attack on the council’s official website.
The homepage of www.frodsham.gov.uk was defaced sometime between Thursday evening and Friday morning with messages relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Islam, and an image of a bearded man in a suit – similar to the emblem used by the international network of ‘hacktivists’ Anonymous.
Cllr Andrew Dawson described the incident as ‘sad’ and suggested the hackers are targeting the wrong people.
“I think it is very sad, and counterproductive for those hacking, that anyone would think that interfering with Frodsham Town Council’s website would achieve anything.
“Whilst I'd like to think we are 'cutting edge' in Frodsham, we are only catering to our local community. I think the protesters have missed both the point and the target.”
The site’s usual information about councillors’ contact details, news and events was replaced with several messages, one of which said ‘Roon Was Here’, which linked to Roon’s Facebook profile – complete with a post saying ‘gov.co.uk hacked’, an emoji sticking its tongue out and a link to Frodsham Town Council’s website.
Another message read ‘Palestine Will Be Free!’ and linked to four maps which claim to show the ‘Palestinian Loss of Land 1947 to Present’.
The final message - ‘Islam will Dominate Over all Other Religions!!’ - linked to a YouTube video called The Meaning of Life - Official Muslim Spoken Word.
The site was taken down by engineers from the council’s internet provider while it was repaired, but was still experiencing difficulties on Wednesday.