Arizona department's website hacked by Middle East group

A cyber attack hits close to home. An Arizona government website was hacked by a group calling themselves the Middle East Cyber Army.

On Sunday, they targeted the Arizona Department of Weights and Measures website.

"It is kind of frightening when you are at home, and you sit down in your living room, and you are like oh my gosh we just got hacked by this MECA group," said Andy Tobin.

Director Andy Tobin ordered the website be taken down as soon as he saw what had become of the agency's website.

"It was showing a burning city, and arms and we are in a fight unlike what we have been seeing from the middle east," he said.

On Twitter, they posted a message with a picture of the departments website before the hack, thankfully no critical information was stolen.

"That server that the web system was under wasn't the system that our database was under, so we are in a good spot where we didn't have any compromise," said Tobin.

The staff at the weights and measures office are working to figure out how the hackers pulled this off, for now the website remains offline.

"The sooner we get it up the better, but I am not going to put it up until it is safe. So if you spend some money on that, and if they are going to be able to come in and take it down again, that is not dollars well spent," said Tobin.

The Middle East Cyber Army has claimed responsibility for attacks all over the United States including public institutions, and private organizations. In August, they claimed responsibility for hacking a Scottsdale-based performing arts school.