William Eichler 14 January 2016

West Midland’s council victim of ‘bizarre hack’

Stratford-upon-Avon Town Council’s website has been temporarily brought down by hackers, according to the Stratford-upon-Avon Herald.

Visitor’s attempting to access the website were greeted with a homepage headed by the words ‘El Surveillance’, a quote from the Qur’an, an unusual image, and a reference to escort agencies.

Christopher Boyd, a website intelligence analyst from Malwarebytes, told the Herald that this was part of a wider hacking campaign aimed at escort sites.

It is, however, unclear why the town council was targeted.

Sarah Summers, town clerk to Stratford Town Council, described it as a ‘bizarre hack’, but emphasised that no long-term damage had been done.

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