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Hackers Disabled Campaign Website, Lawmaker Says

U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-New York, reported no personal or financial information was compromised in the Oct. 7 cyberattack.

(TNS) — U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-New York, said hackers shut down his campaign website on Sunday.

The group calls itself “Tim’s Army” and also is known as “Ayyildiz Tim Siber Army,” King said Monday.

“The good news is that we immediately contacted our service provider and security company and the site has been cleaned and all malware removed. The website should be fully restored very shortly,” King said in a news release.

“Most importantly I can assure all supporters and contributors that no personal or financial data were stored on the website's server and could not have been compromised," King said. "This is another demonstration of the constant threat of cyber hacking and the need to counter it immediately.”

The group has taken over the Twitter accounts of national political journalists, including Fox News’ Brit Hume and NBC’s Peter Alexander, posting Turkish propaganda, according to news media reports.

King said in an interview Monday that he alerted the House security team of the hacking, as well as the House Intelligence and Homeland Security committees and the Nassau County Police Department.

King, who serves on the House Homeland Security Committee and is chairman of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, said no security or intelligence-related information was posted on his campaign website that could have been compromised.

But he said he wanted to alert the committees in case the group was “targeting other members of those committees.”

“I don’t know if it was random,” King said. “I don’t know if I was being targeted. I don’t know if it was just a coincidence.”

King is running for a 14th term in Congress against Democrat Liuba Grechen Shirley.

©2018 Newsday Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.