AUSTIN - The FBI is investigating a cyber attack on Tuesday that replaced the Texas Department of Agriculture website with pro-Iranian messages and a photo of General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a U.S. airstrike that has sparked escalating conflict with Iran.

A message posted along with the image of Soleimani read “Hacked by Iranian Hacker” and “Hacked by Shield Iran,” according to Vice News, which was first to report the website defacement.

“Our system immediately caught it. We immediately shut it down,” said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, who confirmed the FBI investigation.

So apparently the Texas Department of Agriculture website has been hacked... pic.twitter.com/gfFNFGyKuK — José Santos Portugal (@JSPortugal3) January 7, 2020

The website was quickly back to normal and no information from the department’s servers was compromised, he said.

“Nothing was released, nothing was exposed,” said Miller, a Republican who was first elected Agriculture Commissioner in 2014.

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It’s not clear how the hackers got into the website. Officials don’t think it was Iran, but they suspect it may have been youth participating in some type of cyber challenge, Miller said.

A spokesman for the FBI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott warned of potential cyber attacks on state agencies Tuesday, as Iran mourned Soleimani’s death.

In a 48-hour period, Abbott said Texas officials had identified Iran as the origin of as many as 10,000 attempted attacks per minute on state computers and networks. He didn’t cite the Department of Agriculture breach.

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Texas Department of Information Resources executive director Amanda Crawford told reporters Tuesday a state website may have been defaced by someone with pro-Iranian sentiments, but declined to name the agency.

Miller, a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump who has found himself in hot water over controversial statements about Democrats, doesn’t know why his department was targeted.

“We will get to the bottom of it,” he said. “We will find all those answers.”

amorris@express-news.net