St Luke’s C of E Primary School website hacked

St Luke’s C of E website hacked by a group claiming to be linked to the terror group ISIS

The website of Heywood Primary School St Luke’s C of E was hacked yesterday (Wednesday 18 November) by a group claiming to be linked to the terror group ISIS.

Throughout the day, the site showed a headless black suited figure, which looked to be sat on a United Nations symbol, with a Jordanian flag on the chest pocket.

The website read: “Announcement: hacked by ISIS. Hacked by MRX.” There was also music playing in the background and the usual content on the website had disappeared.

Gail Hopper, Director of Children’s Services at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “We are currently looking into the circumstances behind the website being altered. It is important to emphasise that it affects only the public-facing pages.

“Absolutely no pupil data has been compromised and the website has now been corrected.

“It is possible that this act of vandalism is simply a prank. However, it is cruel, irresponsible and can contribute to concerns that are already understandably heightened at the moment.”

Greater Manchester Police confirmed that their Cyber-Crime unit had been made aware of the incident and added: “We are looking into this. There is no reason to believe it is terror related.”

The school, which is located on Queens Park Road, Heywood currently has around 2,010 pupils.

Anyone with information about the incident, is asked to contact police on 101.