The national department of basic education was forced to shut down its website on late on Wednesday after it was hacked and plastered with gruesome images.
Hackers infiltrated the site and posted gruesome pictures of decapitated corpses‚ including images of children.
Those who claimed responsibility for the cyber attack posted: "Hacked by Team System DZ. A message to the government‚ the American people and the rest of the world. Is this the humanity that you claim‚ or is life irrelevant to Muslims? Do not imagine that these actions against Muslims will pass you and we will forget what you did to the Arab and Muslim peoples all over the world. I love Islamic State."
Department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga decried the incident‚ denouncing the images that "incite hatred and violence".
"We have taken immediate steps to have the images removed from our website and to investigate how the website has been hacked‚" he said.
"In this regard we have contacted the State Information and Technology Agency that is responsible for the security system to deal with the hacking as a matter of urgency‚" he added.
An investigation is under way to establish the source of the hack.
-TimesLIVE
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