Hackers vandalized two of the state of Minnesota’s webpages last week, say IT officials — the second incident of government website defacement in Minnesota in two weeks.
For a brief time on Aug. 5, messaging that officials have described as “anti-government” covered a Minnesota Department of Human Services refugee services page and administrative portal, according to reports. Minnesota’s Security Operations Center quickly pulled them down and as of Friday was still investigating the incident.
Minnesota Chief Information Security Officer Aaron Call told StateScoop that, so far, there has been no evidence of a data or security breach. It was an isolated and “essentially benign” incident of webpage defacement, he said, which has become a kind of subculture among some hackers. The digital vandals infiltrate webpages, scrawl their names across them, and upload screenshots to online message boards, vying to get on the most impressive sites.
But while there was no loss of information, he said, it was still cause for concern.
“What it means is that there was a flaw in that website,” Call said. “So from that perspective, even though what was done appears to be a benign incident, it does mean that we had a public-facing website with a vulnerability on it. And I take that exceptionally seriously.”
The incident comes after a similar attack on a Minnesota county website the week before.
On July 30, the homepage of Stearns County, a part of the larger Minneapolis metro area, displayed a photo of an individual with a Guy Fawkes mask and a sign advertising crudely for “the revolution,” ..
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