Islamic Extremists Hack Mass Maritime Website

CapeCodOnline.com – The Massachusetts Maritime Academy website was hacked twice Monday in a cyber-attack that appeared to stem from an Islamic extremist group, campus officials said.

Rear Adm. Richard Gurnon, president of the Buzzards Bay university, said a group known as the Moroccan Islamic Union-Mail is believed to be responsible for both hacks, the first of which redirected students and staff to a website showing a photograph of an American soldier’s grave, with audio of a man speaking in Arabic.

Staff members alerted the academy to the hack at about 1:30 p.m. after trying to access their email, only to be sent to the website showing the soldier’s grave above Arabic text.

Gurnon said the hack lasted for about an hour until staff members were able to plug holes in the academy’s system, preventing students and staff from being redirected to the website. But at about 9 p.m., Gurnon said, the same group attacked the homepage, shutting it down overnight and preventing students from finishing their homework assignments online.

Gurnon confirmed that the group did not access any personnel data or information from the academy’s business office. He suspected that the group was seeking publicity based on the mistaken belief that the academy has a military affiliation.

“It appears the people targeting the academy saw kids in uniform, assumed we were military and did this attack saying the military will die in the deserts of Iraq,” Gurnon said.

Do you think Islamic extremist groups have board meetings? If so heads are going to roll at the Moroccan Islamic Union-Mail’s headquarters when the bosses get wind of this. I can’t imagine that mistaking a merchant marine academy for a military target is going to go over well. Islamic extremists aren’t exactly known for their high levels of tolerance for subordinates who waste extremist time and resources.

The poor IT guy at the Moroccan Islamic Union-Mail, he thought he was destined for 70 virgins in heaven but instead he was probably demoted to printing out “death to America” handbills in the copy room for all of eternity.