HAINES CITY -- People who tried to log onto the city's website last Sunday night found themselves looking at a Turkish gaming site instead.
Haines City's government website was hacked into about 10:30 p.m. -- and taken down as soon as the city's Information Technology staff was notified later Sunday night, Assistant City Manager Jonathan Evans said Monday.
A group calling itself AYYILDIZIIM-Gen~Reis claimed the credit, or blame, for the hacking that redirected visitors to its website, which Evans said was a Turkish gaming site.
He said because the website is not hosted on city servers, IT staff could not determine how it was hacked. But he said no information on city servers were compromised.
"We took the website down," Evans said. "We know it's an important communication tool and we have been working on a reorganized website but this glitch set the plans in motion sooner."
The city had been without a website provider for some months and therefore was vulnerable to a cyber attack, Evans said. .
"We will be launching our new website (today) or Wednesday," he said. "We hope the residents and guests to the website realize it's a work in progress and it will be far from complete."
Evans said city staff is meeting today with its new vendor and will address security concerns.
"That's why we're making the migration to a new website provider," he said. "And we are going to make sure there is a security protocol so this doesn't happen again."
The website and communications is part of Evans' new job duties. He said they are working with a new firm to redesign the website, making it more user friendly and helpful.
"In the event that something happens in the future, we'll be prepared for it," Evans said.
