A fan site for the University of Texas at San Antonio football program was attacked Friday morning by hackers claiming to be supporters of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
RowdyTalk.com typically hosts forums focusing on "UTSA fans living the Orange and Blue," but on Friday messages and images from a hacker group calling themselves "SeCuR!TY Li0NS HaCK3RS" appeared instead. The messaging claimed to support the Syrian government and Assad.
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The San Antonio-based fan website was taken down around 4:42 a.m. CST. RowdyTalk site owner Chris Allison, who has several degrees from the University of Texas at San Antonio, says he saw notices from site members about the attack at about 8 a.m. and tweeted about the hack.
By 11:30 a.m., RowdyTalk had been mostly restored by the site owners, who are all UTSA graduates passionate about the University and its athletic department. Allison says the site staff is reviewing their website's security, which will take several more hours.
"Although frustrating for the staff and our members, everybody took the hack in stride and made it a lighthearted event," said Allison.
Fans of the site rallied around the hashtag #RowdyTalkHack2013 on Twitter earlier on Friday to discuss the hack.