Recently, two U.S. Army websites experienced page defacement, with content pointing to Trump and Middle Eastern political issues. Cyberscoop, which first reported the incident, stated that the altered pages were error pages, and the military took them down shortly after being questioned by the media.
Two military websites were affected.
The affected websites belong to the Open Innovation Lab and the AI Integration Center, both of which are involved in testing and integrating emerging technologies, including AI-related projects.
Security researcher Ronald Lovelace told Cyberscoop that error pages on both websites were injected with politically charged text, including content attacking Trump, references to U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, and phrases such as "Free Kurdistan."
The military has not yet disclosed the method of intrusion.
As of Monday, the altered content was still visible. After Cyberscoop contacted the U.S. Army, the affected pages were quickly removed. The U.S. Army did not explain how the erroneous pages were modified or disclose whether a broader system compromise had occurred.
The report noted that these websites appear to run on WordPress and rely on multiple plugins; such components, if vulnerable, could serve as entry points for attacks. However, there is currently no evidence suggesting that this incident involved data exfiltration.
The U.S. Army has launched an investigation.
Cyberscoop reported that the U.S. Army is investigating the incident. A U.S. Department of Defense spokesperson did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment.
The report also noted that hacktivists often alter website pages to express political demands. Such attacks may sometimes affect only the page display, but they can also involve deeper damage. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was targeted by a similar group, after which some contract records were publicly released.
Additional information: This week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security also confirmed another security incident: hackers breached one of its intelligence-sharing platforms, which is used to transmit information between state, local, and federal agencies.