A local website for student scholarship information was hacked, displaying a hard-core porn site instead of financial aid options.
Now, the FBI may get involved, as some members of the Sweetwater community accuse the foundation in charge of the website for the Sweetwater Education Foundation of not acting soon enough to take down the site.
Kevin O'Neill, who is running for a position on the school board for Sweetwater Unified School District, said he and other concerned community members alerted the foundation and the district about the website early last week -- yet the site is still up.
"They are sort of a deer in the headlights," said O'Neill. "And quite frankly if I had a website and mine had been hacked, I don't know what I would do. I understand the plight they're in. I would just hope they would have been galvanized into action sooner."
Foundation President Ed Valerio said it hasn’t been easy taking it down.
"Since I learned about this late last week I've been on the phone with multiple tech companies trying to take control of this,” he said. “We hope that will be done in the next couple of days."
FBI officials say the hackers appear to be sophisticated, which makes it challenging to fix. Plus, Special Agent Darrell Foxworth said the Foundation could be a victim of a crime.
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Community members agree, but say the Foundation should have been able to get help sooner.
