PROVIDENCE — The city’s website was briefly disabled Sunday morning after a computer hacker gained access to a server run by the company that hosts the site.
David Ortiz, spokesman for Mayor Angel Taveras, said the incident affected sites that are hosted by InMotionHosting and was not a targeted attack on the city’s site.
“The hacker did not compromise the city’s internal servers, data or e-mail,” he said in a statement.
Ortiz said the hacker gained access to the server that hosts the city site at about 5:30 a.m.
WPRI.com captured an image of the site that showed a black screen with a message that read: “Server HackeD by TIGER-M@TE #Bangladeshi HackeR.”
City staff learned of the attack at about 8:30 a.m. and used a backup to restore the site by 9:30 a.m., Ortiz said.
InMotionHosting, which has offices in California and Virginia, acknowledged the attack on its website, saying a “defacement attack” early Sunday morning had affected “a large number of customers.” By 1 p.m., the company had restored many of the affected sites, the statement said.
Ortiz said the primary responsibility for notifying the police lies with InMotionHosting. He added that Providence police were also looking into the incident and will take action if they have jurisdiction to do so.
Journal Staff
Article source: http://www.projo.com/news/content/web_site_hacked_09-26-11_ESQJ8ED_v12.66e71.html
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