Hackers post ISIS propaganda on Tucson school district website

PHOENIX — Propaganda supporting the Islamic State terror group and late Iraq President Saddam Hussein was apparently posted on the Tucson Unified School District’s website by hackers this weekend.

KVOA-TV said the southern Arizona website was one of hundreds to be hit by hackers over the weekend.

The district said it had removed the images, which also included photos of the king of Saudi Arabia, in a Monday statement.

“Our technical staff discovered that a small file had been injected into the root of one of the SchoolDesk websites, redirecting approximately 800 school and district websites to an iFramed YouTube page containing an audible Arabic message, unknown writing, and a picture of Saddam Hussein,” the district said in a statement.

The district said it was working with various officials to discover the source of the hack.

Faten Ghosen, a professor at the University of Arizona’s School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies, told the TV station that the hack was likely not conducted by ISIS because the propaganda did not seem to be well thought out.

“They don’t have like a strategy,” she said. It just seems to be random.”

Ghosen said parents should not be concerned, as the images and videos posted by the hackers did not mention recruitment.

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