A SCOTS local council has suffered a hack with the unidentified perpetrator taking the opportunity to change the names of schools.
The hack was perpetrated by an unknown individual against South Lanarkshire Council with the prankster choosing to target schools in the area.
The hacker changed the names of schools in the area on Google to bizarre phrases inspired by internet memes.
Hamilton Grammar School in Hamilton had its name changed to “Hawk Tuah School” whilst nearby St John Ogilvie High School was renamed “John Pork Sigma”.
South Lanarkshire Council appears to be aware of the hack with the affected schools seemingly being removed from Google Maps.
However, they seem to have been unable to reverse the name changes, with Google Maps’ suggested searches still showing the changed names.
After the hack was discovered, it was shared to social media with the hacker apparently taking notice and changing Hamilton Grammar School’s name again.
It then showed on Google search results as, “S**t tweet” followed by the name of the account that shared the hack.
The hilarious mischief garnered huge attention online with many users finding the hackers’ antics hilarious.
The prank has since been mostly reversed by South Lanarkshire Council, with the names of the schools on the search results being changed back.
Images of the hacker’s work were shared to social media yesterday with the caption: “Someone has hacked South Lanarkshire Council and changed the names of the schools.”
The social media post received over 5,600 likes and more than a dozen comments from tickled Scots.
One user wrote: “Just learned how to use inspect element?”
Another added: “And Google Maps won’t even accept the location change of our new office. I’ve tried like so many times.”
A third replied: “Happened to my sixth form, got changed to Spooky Scary Bando Sixth Form.
“Then I got the idea to change my mates’ school name on Wikipedia and got a 60-year editing ban.”
Another said: “My school’s name’s been changed as well.”
A fifth joked: “Hack Tuahed.”
Speaking today a spokesman for South Lanarkshire Council said: “To be clear, the council’s systems have not been hacked.
“Rather, it appears that someone has manipulated data on Google Maps as a prank, which is outside of the council’s control.
“However, we are making the data holder aware of any resulting errors so that these can be corrected.”
