Tasmanian govt media office hacked

The media office of the Tasmanian Government has this morning been taken offline after a hacker group calling itself Satanic Souls planted its flag in the government's press release system.

Tasmanian government media site is offline after the hack.
(Screenshot by Luke Hopewell/ZDNet Australia)

A media advisory issued automatically from the government's email system this morning flagged an appearance from "Acting Acting Premier Lara Giddings" and "Minister for Human Services Cassy O'Connor", complete with the heading "54tani1c 50uls was Here! — by Sp1d3r", as seen on The Mercury.

The defaced release also bore an image of Neo, a character from The Matrix.

The Tasmanian Government media office told ZDNet Australia that the issue is currently being investigated and refused to comment further on the extent of the attack.

Satanic Souls has previously claimed responsibility for a 2004 attack on the New Zealand State Service's Commission's careers page, wiping the page and leaving its calling card.

The hack appears to be more of a flag-planting exercise rather than a malicious attack, unlike the attack in 2009 when hacktivist group Anonymous launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack against the Federal Government's Parliament House website to protest the government's proposed internet filtering scheme.