I saw this news article tonight and had to laugh…
“We all recognize that the Web site is important to the community,” Mayor Roy Robinson said. “We’ve tried to save money to build our own Web site. We should be designating a certain amount of money to maintain and protect it in a professional manner.”
Yeah, you get what you pay for guys! Basically, the local city web site got hacked. The article tried unsuccessfully to say that the main page was hacked and users were redirected to spyware/malware web sites. Trojan horse in a database…huh? Have to love the media interpretation of technical issues.
This is nothing new right? Think about this though…how many other local communities do the same thing to cut corners and save some cash? Sure it’s expensive to build and maintain a web site with security in mind but these days, can you really afford not to? I found a local city web site with security issues (while the one I found was a bit more serious) several weeks ago as an example. Next time you get a chance to talk to your local community ward representative ask them when they last had a security assessment done on the city web site, especially if they are offering services vital to the community.