If you’re planning a trip to Australia and were recently on either the Tourism Industry Council of New South Wales website or the New South Wales Tourism Awards website you may have been a bit confused, and even somewhat disturbed, at what you saw.
Earlier this week, the two NSW websites were hacked and defaced with unsettling photographs. For example, instead of pictures of Sydney Harbour and the Outback, visitors were greeted by a young woman with a gag over her face. Other images included Batman’s archenemy, the Joker, and the “V For Vendetta” Guy Fawkes mask, an iconic symbol of the Occupy Movement.
Andrew Jefferies, Tourism Industry Council NSW’s general manager, has stated the hackers have been traced to Iraq.
“I still don’t know why someone would want to hack into our two sites,” he told news.com.au. “It’s forced us to increase our security and change our passwords and back up processes to ensure that we don’t have any of these problems again.”
After being hacked on Monday and again Tuesday, the sites are now back up and running. Unfortunately, since it was traced overseas, the company doesn’t believe there is much they can do aside for keeping their guard up and working to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
[Image via edans]