The BVI community was brought to a state of shock and disbelief after the website of a popular online news site was caught flooded with graphical pornographic material, displaying men being intimate with each other.
The incident was brought to the attention of many residents across the territory just after 11am this morning, after captured screenshots and videos of the material started circulating on all social media platforms.
After news of the incident became a viral topic across the territory, access to the website was temporarily disabled as persons were met with a message titled “Service Temporarily Unavailable.”
“The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later,” the message stated.
While it is unclear whether the website was hacked or if there was an error made while posting on the website, management of the media entity posted an article stating that they were hacked by “unknown” persons.
“Virgin Islands News Online (VINO) was hacked by unknown person(s) and pornographic images and videos that do not reflect our values were installed. Additionally, we were unable to make any new posts or edits on the site for a few hours,” the media site stated.
Matter reported to the FBI and local law enforcement agencies
According to the article, the management of the news site also stated that they have reported the incident to law enforcement agencies both in the BVI and the United States Virgin Islands (USVI).
“Management has since regained full control of the website and has strengthened its internal security. It has also reported the matter both to local authorities as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US Virgin Islands,” the website stated.
In the meantime, an apology was also issued to “readers, advertisers, business partners and other stakeholders” involved in the news site.