Hacker Dares to Break Into Police Website

A computer hacker who managed to break into the Web site of Durham Regional Police defaced its home page. Durham police is carrying on with the investigation process.

While the hacker partially changed the Web site there are no signs of additional damage, neither are there any major concerns about the site's security, said Sergeant Paul McCurbin in news that Durhamregion published on March 12, 2007.

On Saturday March 10, 2007 someone invaded the Durham Regional Police Web site and placed a large image of a wolf on the home page of the Web site. However, the site was restored to normal functioning at 7 pm.

According to a spokesman at the communications department of the police service, they became aware of the wolf's picture around 12.30 pm on Saturday. He further said the IT department of the service, however, managed to remove it on Monday next.

Sergeant McCurbin assured they were trying to determine the person behind the breach. The whole incident was seemingly clear to all those who visited the Web site over the weekend.

The breach did not affect the website from the angle of security. It impacted only the front page. Durham police were content with the security they maintained on their website. There was nothing of concern for the long term, Sgt. McCurbin explained.

The Durham police realized the hacker could not access any sensitive information so the security of the public was not at jeopardy. The hacking of the website was quite different. Everybody was stunned. While the police have still not identified the culprit, investigations were in full force. Nobody has also come forward to owe responsibility therefore police have not stopped investigating. They have opened the case and police is determined to book the invader(s).

The visitors to the site www.drps.ca were sure that alterations were made when they saw the picture of the wolf obstructing the page along with many messages.

When Sgt. McCurbin heard from a Metroland editor about the obstructive image on the website, which people used to make a crime report, he said he would notify the IT department immediately.

Related article: Hacker & Virus in MySpace

» SPAMfighter News - 3/23/2007