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Donald Trump’s website defaced by Turkish hacker

Hack was carried out by someone calling themselves RootAyyildiz

Graeme Massie
Los Angeles
Monday 18 October 2021 22:56 BST
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Former President Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on October 09, 2021 in Des Moines, Iowa. This is Trump's first rally in Iowa since the 2020 election.
Former President Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on October 09, 2021 in Des Moines, Iowa. This is Trump's first rally in Iowa since the 2020 election. (Getty Images)
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Donald Trump’s website was defaced by computer hackers, who replaced part of the site with a message in Turkish.

“Do not be like those who forget Allah, so Allah made them forget themselves. Here they really went astray,” read part of the message.

It also included an embedded YouTube video of a speech given by the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The hack was carried out by someone calling themselves RootAyyildiz.

The same hacker claimed responsibility for defacing Joe Biden’s website in November following the presidential election.

A declassified report released by the National Intelligence Council in March confirmed the group’s role in the day-long hack on vote.joebiden.com.

“In November, hackers promoting Turkish nationalist themes breached and defaced a website previously established for a candidate in the US presidential campaign, according to US cybersecurity press,” the NIC report stated.

Mr Biden’s website also displayed a message in Turkish with the country’s flag and a photo of the 34th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Abdul Hamid II.

Politicians have been a popular target of hackers in recent years.

Social media giant Twitter was hit back in 2020, with the accounts of Mr Biden, Barack Obama, and Bill Gates, among others, taken over in a bitcoin scam that netted hackers more than $100,000.

A 17-year-old hacker pleaded guilty to his role in the incident and was sentenced to three years in juvenile prison.

The one-term president’s website was also hacked in October 2020, when the “about” page was replaced with one that claimed the site had been “seized” and listed a string of allegations that his White House was to blame for the coronavirus pandemic and foreign interference in the election.

“We have evidence that completely discredits Mr Trump as a president. Proving his criminal involvement and cooperation with foreign actors manipulating the 2020 elections,” a message from the hackers read.

The website was quickly back in normal working order.

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