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Kenosha faces cyberattacks or ‘hacktivism’ as it responds to historic protests
The City of Kenosha has been fighting off cyberattacks since the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Kenosha.org was temporarily unavailable throughout the day on Monday, Aug. Aug. 24.
KENOSHA, Wis. - The City of Kenosha has been fighting off cyberattacks since the shooting of Jacob Blake. They're called "denial of service" attacks -- which either flood a website with traffic or send it harmful information to make it crash.
Kenosha.org was temporarily unavailable throughout the day on Monday, Aug. Aug. 24.
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"It's called 'hacktivism,'" said MATC Professor Joe Martinez, who said this is a form of protest. "This type of attack happens to political sites -- it happens to religious sites, it happens to financial institutions."
One Twitter user is claiming responsibility for attacking the website telling Contact 6, I "found critical vulnerabilities" and "disclosed them to other hackers...to do what they wanted" -- and "it is a protest for what they did to Jacob Blake."
"They were doing it because they were upset," Martinez said.
Martinez said when this happens, it can be fought off by administrators taking action.
"To install things like hot patches, fixes, updates to whatever service was breached or broken, and restore service safely," Martinez said.
The city of Kenosha's IT director tells us despite repeated cyberattacks on its website, no data has been released or lost. As of Tuesday, Aug. 25, the website was up continuously once more. The city is now working with its website provider to continue protecting sensitive information and thwart attacks.
Kenosha's IT director stressed there has been no breach and no successful hack of their website -- despite numerous attempts.
9 arrested after 'suspicious vehicles with out-of-state plates' stopped on 4th night of protests in Kenosha
Police said this began with a citizen tip that the vehicles planned to meet in a remote lot near State Highway 50 and Green Bay Road.
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“Jacob did nothing to provoke police. He was a great father and was only intending to get his children out of a volatile situation. Witnesses confirm that he was not in possession of a knife and didn’t threaten officers in any way," Benjamin Crump said in a statement Thursday on the shooting of Jacob Blake by Kenosha police.
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Investigators haven’t explained why police drew guns on Blake and why the officer opened fire. They say a knife was found in the SUV, but they have said nothing about what role it may have played.
Law enforcement organizations ask that Gov. Evers 'refrain from making statements specific to Kenosha'
The letter accuses the governor and Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes of making previous remarks that were "premature, judgmental, inflammatory and only add to the anger and divisiveness of an already dangerous situation."