[ISN] Hacker disrupts state disaster site

[InfoSec News]

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060614/NEWS01/606140312

By Stephen D. Price 
CAPITOL BUREAU 
June 14, 2006

As Tropical Storm Alberto barreled toward Florida, a computer hacker
disrupted public access to the state's emergency Web site for about 20
minutes Tuesday morning, but the glitch did not affect emergency
workers, officials said.

The Web site, www.floridadisaster.org, is set up by the Division of
Emergency Management and allows Floridians to access information about
emergency situations.
  
The problem delayed a briefing by emergency workers.

"Someone intentionally did this," said Carla Boyce, plans chief for
the Division of Services Management. "Loopholes get discovered and
hackers take advantage of them."

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the
incident.

At 7:30 Tuesday morning, emergency workers noticed the site showed
error messages, said David Halstead, State Emergency Response Team
chief. He said a similar problem happened a week ago.

"It takes someone with good computer skills to do this," Halstead
said.

Boyce said workers are reviewing logs and network tools for clues to
learn who did the hacking and from where. The problem was fixed, and
extra precautions are being taken so it doesn't happen again, she
said.