|
|
« Patrick Kennedy issues statement about his father | Today | Update: Obama to fill in for Sen. Kennedy at graduation » May 22, 2008Update: State vendor info site taken offlinePROVIDENCE – All public bidding on state contracts has been postponed, and the state’s vendor-information Web page is “unavailable until further notice,’’ according to a posting on the state Division of Purchasing site. According to John Landers, the head of the state’s information technology division, “the vendor Web site was affected [Wednesday] yesterday by an unauthorized attempt to enter a state Web site from the Internet. In this particular type of attempt, an outside computer that has previously been compromised is used to attack other computers on the Internet. Thousands of such attacks have been occurring across the world in recent days.’’ In this particular instance, Landers said, “there is no indication that anyone using our Web site was redirected to another Web site. The user simply received a ‘page not found’ error. There is also no indication that any information was obtained.’’ But Landers said, the Web site was taken offline until it could be “hardened to assist further in protecting against this type of attack.’’ The notice on the state purchasing Web page currently reads: RHODE ISLAND VENDOR INFORMATION PROGRAM. PLEASE NOTE:THIS WEBSITE WILL BE UNAVAILABLE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. ALL PUBLIC BIDS ARE POSTPONED AND WILL BE RESCHEDULED AT A LATER DATE. PLEASE PLAN ACCORDINGLY. While Landers said the Web page would likely go back up tomorrow, neither he nor Lorraine Hynes, the acting director of state purchasing, responded to inquiries about how many public bids were cancelled or the nature of those delayed bids. Earlier today, they also would not answer questions about when the bidding had been suspended, and any possible connection between the cancellation and a May 13 memo that went out from Department of Administration Director Jerome Williams ordering state agencies to freeze non-essential spending. In a e-mail reply this afternoon to the question of whether the bidding had been suspended because of Williams' memo or whether there was any connection to it, Landers replied, "Absolutely not." -- Katherine Gregg and Steve Peoples, Journal State House Bureau The memo orders department directors to follow strict new guidelines for all spending – including new bids and requisitions - through the end of the fiscal year, which ends on June 30. Despite the passage of a budget-repair bill earlier this month, Williams wrote: “As you know the state is experiencing significant fiscal issues. Although the legislature has passed a 2008 supplemental budget, all agencies need to do everything possible to reduce expenditures.’’ Among the issues are $15 million in personnel savings the General Assembly booked based on the governor’s proposal to have all state employees take six unpaid days off before July 1 to save money. With the clock ticking, none of these so-called “furlough days’’ have happened. Posted by Brandie Jefferson CommentsMethe geek | May 22, 2008 10:05 PM link According to another ProJo article at http://www.beloblog.com/ProJo_Blogs/newsblog/archives/2008/05/update_23.html, they gained access "by guessing DOT staff members 'very simple' user names and passwords." You don't have to be a rocket scientist to get into John Doe's DOT account by trying username DOE and password JOHN. This is a management problem as much as a technical problem -- they should enforce strong passwords. Then again, what good is it if the password is something not easily guessed, lik pF5Gu8, when the dopes paste it to their monitors on a sticky note for all the world to see? No rocket scientists need apply | May 23, 2008 8:41 AM link Post a commentPlease be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published. Name and email are required; email address will not publish. |
|
ADVERTISING |
|
|
|
|
| Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
ProJo 9 to 5 News Blog
Oct 2005 - March 2006
It's obvious the State IT department doesnt know what they are doing. Internet attacks happen everyday by the thousands everywhere. In this day and age they should be well prepared for attacks of all kinds, aren't we all happy it wasnt a terrorist attack the state is not prepared for? Im not sure I would trust the state of RI IT web services because this is not the first time their sites have been hacked. If the state keeps cutting back and does not hire talanted IT staff at competitive wages that are current and educated in the industry, the public will always be vulnerable.