Local Small Business Owner Says Website Hacked By ISIS Sympathizers
COSTA MESA (CBSLA.com) — A growing concern in the war on terror is hitting home for a local businesswoman.
Genny Davila says her company website, resqco.org, appears to have been hacked by sympathizers of the terror group ISIS.
And experts say many small businesses are becoming prime targets.
"Why would this happen to my website? I'm, like, a dog accessories company," she said.
The site recently went from an online collar and leash store to a haunting advertisement for the Islamic State, or ISIS.
Davila contacted Homeland Security. They led her to the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team and she filed a report this week claiming she had been hacked.
"They did say, yeah, that it had been happening. I wasn't the only one," she said.
Team System DZ, the group that claimed responsibility for hacking Davila's website, targeted a non-profit in Buena Park earlier this month after launching a pro-ISIS cyber campaign.
Todd Plesco, the Chief Information Security Director at Chapman University, believes the hackers are likely just teenagers living overseas who are not members of al Qaeda or ISIS.
"That's not really terrorism as much as it is tagging," Plesco said.
"'I love ISIS and Jihad,' that's the sort of thing a teenager would [write]. If it was ISIS it would be something very militant," he said.
CBS2/KCAL9 traced Team System DZ and the names associated to a Twitter page where members are actively communicating.
"You don't expect, like your small business, that something would happen... because you feel like you are so under the radar, operating on a such a small level," Davila said.
But Plesco says the smaller the business, the bigger the target, adding that websites like Davila's are vulnerable because she had been too busy to change her passwords, manage bulk updates and keep plug-ins up to date.
"I'm gonna do what I need to do to make sure it stays safe and secure," she said.
The FBI says they have seen a growing number of websites hacked.
They encourage anyone who's been a victim to contact law enforcement and safeguard their networks.
