Police have launched an investigation after hackers took control of Aberdeen City Council’s website.
A hacking group, called Team System DZ, breached security on the site on Saturday in an attack lasting two hours.
Those responsible for the attack used a single black page, which took over the entire website, and showed the silhouette of a man in a stetson hat above the message “security stupidity”.
The group posted details of the incident on its own Facebook page – and initially gave no reasons for the hack.
But they later claimed it was in response to President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration order.
On Friday, the president signed an executive order, temporarily banning travel from seven mainly Muslim countries – Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The hackers are understood to be based in Algeria and are believed to have been responsible for more than 200 attacks on a variety of websites around the world.
The incident lasted between 7.20 and 10.20pm before it was returned to normal.
The authority stressed that no personal data was stored on the site and said that residents’ financial details were not compromised.
In the hours following the incident, an urgent investigation was launched by the council to determine how the hackers had managed to gain control of the site.
Yesterday, the authority confirmed the inquiry was now in the hands of the police.
A spokeswoman for the authority said: “The incident has been reported to Police Scotland who have opened a live investigation.”
The force is now looking into how the website security was breached.
A spokeswoman added: “Police Scotland can confirm they are aware of the matter where an apparent compromise of the Aberdeen City Council website took place on Saturday, January 28.
“Police Scotland are liaising with Aberdeen City Council to determine the circumstances of the incident.”
The security breach happened even as it was revealed cyber attacks have soared in the UK during the past year.
The latest figures show there were 1,143 reports of data security and cyber security incidents to the Information Commissioner’s Office between March and September last year.