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Hacked again: Cyber vandals strike police website

Second breach in eight months

Jan 04, 2008 - 04:19 PM

By Jeff Mitchell

DURHAM -- Hackers have struck again, forcing Durham police to shut down their website after cyber-vandals breached it for the second time in eight months.

"We have been hacked again," Dave Selby, head of corporate communications with the service, said Friday morning. "We've temporarily shut the site down so we can address that problem."

But Mr. Selby made assurances no sensitive or classified information was accessible to those who breached www.drps.ca, a public information site he likened to a "storefront".

"There's no sensitive data" on the site, which hosts press releases, program updates and information for members of the public seeking various services associated with the Durham police, Mr. Selby said.

"There's no access to police systems. It's a completely separate system."

The problem became evident late Thursday afternoon. Mr. Selby said hackers had breached the site and typed some words over existing content, a less elaborate prank than was the case last spring when someone posted a photo that looked like wolf's eyes on the site's main page.

The police service is working with the service provider that hosts the site to determine how it was breached and steps than can be taken to prevent future hacking, Mr. Selby said.

"We're looking at all the options ...we actually switched servers the last time this happened," he said.

Given the nature of the service, it's to be expected pranksters will make efforts to commit such breaches in hopes of causing embarrassment, he added.

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