The US military has reportedly repaired two of its websites that had been defaced to display pro-Kurdish messages and criticize President Donald Trump, the latest case of hackers compromising federally run systems in recent months.
security researcher Ronald Lovelace told Cyberscoop, which first reported The defacements, that error pages were modified on two US Army websites, the Open Innovation Lab and the AI Integration Center, which test and integrate AI and other technologies into emerging technologies.
The garbled messages appeared when someone tried to visit a web page that did not exist on the websites.
The websites’ error pages had been altered with messages calling Trump a “pedophile” and a “thief,” likely a reference to the president being mentioned extensively in files held by the Justice Department about the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The messages also mentioned Tom Barrack, the current US ambassador to Türkiye, and called for a “free Kurdistan.”
The defacements were visible as of Monday, according to Cyberscoop. The publication contacted the military, which removed the pages shortly after.
The US military did not say how the error pages were deleted. The Army websites appear to be powered by WordPress and rely on various plugins, which can be a target for hackers trying to break into the websites. It is unclear if any data was stolen during the incident. Cyberscoop said the military was investigating the incident.
A spokesperson for the US Department of Defense did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
Hacktivists often deface or modify websites to raise awareness about political causes, but these attacks can also be destructive. Earlier this year, hacktivists attacked the US Department of Homeland Security and released reams of records about contracts that allow US immigration authorities, such as ICE, to carry out deportations.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed another breach this week, after hackers broke into one of the department’s intelligence-sharing platforms It is used to transmit information between state, local and federal authorities.
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