Cyber Incident Victim: Arizona State
Date:
Jul 2016
Location:
United States of America
Summary
A Turkish hacker using the alias "aLem!" defaced multiple high-profile government websites, including Arizona State's official site and related legislative domains, replacing their homepages with an anti-US message and a logo of the Turkish football club Eskişehirspor. The attacker, associated with the Turk Hack Team and active since 2007, bypassed security measures to execute the defacement, which mirrored similar incidents targeting other entities during international football events. All affected websites were restored to normal operation shortly after the breach.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 2 motives | 1 technique |
| Threat Actors | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 2 actors | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On July 1, 2016, a Turkish hacker operating under the alias "aLem!" defaced the official websites of Arizona State, the Arizona House of Representatives, and the Arizona State Legislature. The attacker replaced the homepages of all three government sites with a custom page displaying an anti-United States message and the logo of Eskişehirspor, a Turkish football club based in Eskişehir. The defacement occurred hours before public reporting, with Zone-H mirror links providing evidence of the compromise. While the article noted similarities to a contemporaneous hack against South Yorkshire Police's website by Albanian hackers displaying football club imagery, it clarified no direct football-related connection existed between Turkey and the United States to explain the Arizona incident. The attack methodology remained unspecified in available reporting, though the article questioned how government sites with presumed security measures were compromised, referencing broader concerns about U.S. institutional cybersecurity practices evidenced by recent healthcare data breaches.
The defacement represented one of the hacker's most significant operations since beginning website defacements in 2007. Open-source intelligence indicated "aLem!" maintained affiliations with the Turk Hack Team, a prominent Turkish hacking collective. All three Arizona government websites were restored to normal operation by the time the article was published, though no technical details about remediation efforts were disclosed. The incident temporarily disrupted public access to legislative information but caused no reported data breaches or persistent system damage beyond the temporary homepage replacement. The attacker's primary observable impact was reputational, leveraging high-profile government domains to disseminate political messaging alongside sports-related imagery, though the specific motivations behind targeting Arizona institutions were not elaborated in the source material.