In an era of heightened concern over cyberwarfare, Wednesday's hacking of comedian Leslie Jones' website has become a matter of national security.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security and its U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency told Deadline.com Thursday that its New York office "does currently have an open investigation." He added, "As a matter of agency policy, we are unable to disclose any information related to an active investigation."
The entertainment-industry trade site speculated that the involvement of DHS could suggest the hackers were overseas in origin.
The hack of "Ghostbusters" star Jones, 48, resulted in nude photographs as well as images of her passport and California driver's license being posted online. Additionally, a video of Harambe, the gorilla killed by zookeepers in Ohio earlier this year, was posted on Jones' since-deleted site. Racist Twitter trolls had compared Jones to Harambe in July.
Jones had been the victim of race-baiting tweets last month, which ultimately led to intervention by Twitter's co-founder and the banning of a right-wing technology editor for helping encourage the abuse.
That editor, Breitbart.com columnist Milo Yiannopoulos, said in statement Thursday, "I'm distressed to hear that Leslie Jones has been hacked and naked pictures of her have been posted online. I know we had our differences after my review of Ghostbusters but I wish her all the best at what must be a deeply upsetting time."
