Donald Trump’s Website Goes Offline: Hackers To Blame?

On Saturday morning, Donald Trump’s campaign website went offline, raising some concern from users. According to a Twitter post, a New York based group of hackers are to blame.

At 9:20 a.m. on Saturday morning, New World News tweeted, “donaldjtrump.com is#TangoDown by #NwHackers.

In addition, the organization claimed that it was a one-hour test. This group of hackers is typically utilized to focus on attacking and shutting down terrorist groups, but sometime’s they’re used for testing purposes to ensure there are no vulnerabilities in his website where terrorists can access. As a company familiar with terrorist technology, they make the perfect testing group for vulnerabilities a hacker may discover.

Statistics report on https://t.co/5PhgHchru8
STILL #TangoDown by New World Hacking#OpTrump #AnonFamily
1 hour test! pic.twitter.com/ugLOR1ue3A

— New World Hackers (@NewWorldHacking) January 2, 2016

True to their word, the website returned online following the test. To the average person trying to access the website, they likely wouldn’t have known that a professional hacking system was behind the attacks. When accessing the website, a photo of Donald Trump appeared on the blank page. On the mobile site, a message reading, “We’re experiencing an unusually high volume of traffic at the moment. We’re Honored That so Many People Want to Show Their Support to Help #MakeAmericaGreatAgain!”

This hacking test for Donald Trump is extremely important and significant because of recent political comments he’s made that have made him a target of terrorist activity. Most notably, after he made comments about a total eradication of Muslims in the United States, terrorist groups have begun using clips from his campaign footage to boost their efforts.

The video shows Trump saying, “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” They’re using this footage to paint America as a land of unacceptance and racism. They’re hoping this message will help to sway others to their side and justify their terrorist actions.

As a result of this, campaign security has been increased, and they’re taking extra precautions on his website to ensure no unauthorized access gets through to his campaign site to distort his campaign more or steal his content.

New World Hacking is often commissioned for cases such as this. They’re the first, proactive line of defense in protecting websites from infiltration before an attack happens.

The BBC News website also shut down for several hours earlier this week, and New World Hacking claimed responsibility for that as well.

Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC’s technology correspondent, explained that the group sent an attack entitled a Distributed Denial of Service, or DDoS. This attack tests their systems to see if there are any vulnerabilities that would grant unauthorized access.

Cellan-Jones reported the following message on Twitter following the attack, saying, “Message to me from New World Hackers on BBC DDoS : ‘It was only a test, we didn’t exactly plan to take it down for multiple hours.'”

The length of time the website was down indicates there may have been a problem with the system, and they spent the time fixing it. To catch problems before they happen is the main reason Donald Trump and other major organizations commission hacking of their sites.

[Image via Scott Olson/Getty Images]