At least two New Zealand websites have been hacked and defaced by a group calling themselves the ‘Team Muslim Cyberforce’.

Both websites front not-for-profit philanthropic ventures – Stephen Tindall’s Tindall Foundation and Zeal’s Live For Tomorrow. They are now back online.

The message that the Team Muslim Cyberforce posted on both websites indicates a connection to Indonesia. Indonesia houses the world’s largest Muslim population.

Zeal Advocacy & Operations Manager Elliot Taylor first noticed the issue when he opened the Live For Tomorrow website himself, as he does on most mornings.

For Full story see: http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/65198165/alleged-islamic-hackers-target-nz-websites

“It was probably the last thing I expected to see. Especially considering we’ve been looking at birds with dog heads for the last six weeks.”

Live For Tomorrow is a mental health project developed by Zeal, a Christian youth organisation. It encourages adolescents having a tough time to look forward to a brighter future.

Taylor is unsure why the website was targeted.

“The website has some clear value statements – all positive – as well as a resource for anti-bullying. Maybe the hackers took offence to some of the content, or maybe we were just an easy target.”

Chris Keall of NBR suspects the attack on the Tindall Foundation was random.

While both websites share something of a common cause, precise targeting does seem unlikely. Both websites were back online soon after going down, and neither attacks appeared to have been very sophisticated.