Maine’s Online Database of Legislative Activity Hacked
An unknown hacker last week broke into Maine’s online database of legislative activity and attempted to manipulate the code of the website, according to The Portland Press Herald.
Last Thursday, the legislature’s IT staff shut down the website’s bill status function, which allows users to follow legislation such as roll calls, committee votes, amendments and fiscal notes. The manipulated code inserted the addresses of extraneous websites that could have exposed users’ computers to harm if they clicked on the links, said Scott Clark, director of IT for the legislature.
“It’s not really a hugely harmful thing, if you get the website down,” he told the Herald.
As soon as the IT staff became aware of the problem, it took down the website. The bill status section of www.mainelegislature.org is run by a vendor, International Roll-Call. It is unclear whether the hacking impacted the websites of other state legislatures operated by the company, but Clark said there have been talks with the vendor who plans to up its security.
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