Hackers disable Tahoma site

A skull and cross bones greeted students and parents who visited the Tahoma High School Web site last weekend, after hackers disabled the site.

The security breach was limited to the high school's site, which is hosted on its own server, and did not affect the administrative office or other schools, district spokesman Kevin Patterson said.

District officials are investigating, Patterson said.

"We're not referring to it as a prank," Patterson said. "We're taking it seriously."

Tahoma High hosts Web sites for many of its teachers, and dozens of classes are tied to the site that students use to retrieve class information, turn in assignments or view required readings and news alerts.

Technology staff discovered that the high-school's server was breached Jan. 19 when a group identifying itself as "DarkMind, Dragoc and all FrIenDS!" replaced the high school's home page with a skull and cross bones and a poorly written note that said they had bypassed the site's security system.

The school site was shut down for three days, and several parents called to complain when they could not access school news and alerts from the Web.

District technology officials say that whoever got into the server probably did so from a computer outside of the high school.

Web sites from within the district are monitored through an electronic system that records when someone makes changes to a site from a district computer.

The Tahoma High Web site was up again Tuesday afternoon with a note that saying, "The school Web site has been down for the weekend for repairs, but we're back now!"

Tahoma High principal Terry Duty says the school's technology team believes the site was breached by a group of hackers from overseas. In Washington state, computer trespass is a punishable by up to a year in jail.

Karen Johnson: 253-234-8605 or karenjohnson@seattletimes.com