UPDATE: Carmel's city website has been restored after it was hacked Friday morning.
CARMEL — Carmel's city website is down after it was hacked Friday morning.
The website displayed a message saying it was "hacked by Iranian hackers" and featured an image of former Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed Jan. 3 in an American drone strike. The website is currently inaccessible.
Carmel spokesperson Dan McFeely said in a statement city officials are working to learn what happened.
"The City of Carmel discovered shortly after 8 a.m. today that its website had been hacked," McFeely's statement said. "Our IT officials immediately took the site down. We are working to determine what happened and are also working to fix the matter as soon as possible."
The city released an update at 3:30 p.m. Friday explaining its IT professionals continue to make repairs and are working to restore the website.
"The investigation into how this happened is still ongoing," the statement read. "However, we want to clarify that there was no private information compromised. Carmel's city website only contains public information. Transaction such as paying a city utility bill are done on third-party websites, which were not impacted by today's disruption."
The full statement reads:
The City of Carmel continues to work on its disrupted city website, which remains offline. Our IT professionals are working on making repairs and restoring the website and we hope to have the website back online as soon as possible.
The investigation into how this happened is still ongoing. However, we want to clarify that there was no private information compromised. Carmel's city website only contains public information. Transactions such as paying a city utility bill are done on third-party websites, which were not impacted by today's disruption.
City services continued to remain open on Friday and those who needed specific services were asked to call that department or the main line into City Hall.
We will continue to update you as things change.
BREAKING NEWS - The City of Carmel's website has been hacked and will be down temporarily. We are working as fast as we can to get the matter resolved. pic.twitter.com/7LNs2RzDbu
— City of Carmel, IN (@CITYOFCARMELIN) September 18, 2020
