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By mid-afternoon, Delaware County Executive Director Marianne Grace said county technicians were attempting to bring the Web site down so they could repair it.
By 1:30 p.m., visitors were unable to access the site at all.
Several officials said the court, assessment and tax records were safe, because they are stored on a mainframe.
"None of the information at the county was compromised," James DiMeo, Delaware County’s deputy director of data processing, said. "It’s just our homepage isn’t what it’s supposed to be."
At 10:30 a.m., DiMeo received a call from a Criminal Investigation Division officer who had been notified by a park police officer the Web site was askew.
So, Intermediate Unit officials were contacted since the unit hosts the county’s Web site and the files reside on a computer at the Intermediate Unit’s Morton office.
DiMeo reiterated the data at the courthouse was secure as the public access information, including the real estate, Recorder of Deeds and Office of Judicial Support records, are stored at the courthouse.
"That information is still secure," he said, adding that the hacker simply changed the pointers, or the initial page people see.
DiMeo said it’s also virtually impossible for those who viewed the site Saturday to be susceptible to viruses. He said the Intergovernmental Affairs Office was in the process of maintaining the Web site and the county was changing the format of the site.
DiMeo said he was unable to determine what the cause of the breach was, he also said there were clearly unsecured portals that needed to be addressed.
"The mechanisms they are using to modify the Web site are not as secure as it can be," he said. "The upside is that we were only hacked into the presentation of the Web site."
Visitors to the site Saturday were met with a black screen titled, "Hacked by Kurtadam_ka," surrounded by the Turkish moon and star.
Underneath, it said, "Baglanti adresi:kurtadam_ka@hotmail.com."
Then, it showed a picture of the outline of Turkey with the bloodied sword. To the right of the picture were the words, "Kanla Cizildi, Kanla Silinir.." Unseen on a computer monitor, some Arabic words were seen underneath the picture of Turkey on a printout.
Under the picture on the Web site was "Tanri Turk Korusun Ve Yuceltsin," followed by www.starhack.org. A Windows Media video window at the bottom of the page was inoperable.
"Somebody apparently hacked into it and simply got into the system," Delaware County Solicitor John P. McBlain said.
Earlier this week, the county Web site was penetrated by a non-malicious hacker.
"It came up as a blank page," McBlain said, of the incident that occurred Wednesday or Thursday.
Both Grace and he said it was innocuous and lasted only a moment.
DiMeo said there may be a link between the two, although the county had not pinpointed the hacker or the cause of Saturday’s event.
"The other day, they knew who it was," McBlain said. "It was a recognized hacker who did it."
He said county officials would have to evaluate whether they would seek criminal charges. "If this sort of thing disrupts a public service, we certainly need to take a look at it," he said.
Grace said the county would move forward as needed. "We will take whatever steps are necessary," she said.
DiMeo said the District Attorney’s Office offered its assistance, including any investigations the county may want to pursue linked to the incident.
However, he said the county would have to weigh the practicality of that as these hackers did not try to access any types of sensitive files, such as personnel or court records.
The two incidents this week were the first that invaded the county government since a computer network was adopted 15 years ago, DiMeo said.
He said county officials have to review the situation with Intermediate Unit technicians to make certain the incident doesn’t recur.
In September, the Web site freetechsupport.us was compromised by a hacker linked to starhack. In a forum on that site, starhack is described as a somewhat-notorious group that hacks into sites to protest Israel’s action by finding a flaw in software systems to access a portal’s front page.
A visit to www.starhack.org Saturday showed a window with many non-English words, some looking like a dated tally, with the English words "Turkish Power." There also were pictures of cell phones and fire.
The Web sites for Philadelphia, Chester and Montgomery counties and for the Delaware County Intermediate Unit were undisturbed.
