 |
| DTC Chair Jim Diamond, a practicing attorney with experience as a prosectuor, is working with law enforcement agencies on the hacking of the Democrats' web site. |
The break-in occurred Friday evening and was corrected Saturday morning. According to James D. Diamond, Chairman of the Democratic Town Committee, "We are reporting this offense to both local and federal law enforcement agencies. Computer crime is a serious offense and we are confident that we will be able to identify the people responsible for this invasion."
The award-winning site has been in operation since August 1997, and has drawn more than 100,000 unique user visits since that time. It was the first political web site to be opened in Ridgefield. It serves as a model for other Ridgefield organizations' web sites, and for Democratic town sites throughout Connecticut and the nation. Recognized as a leader in cyber-politics, the Ridgefield Democrats' site was honored with a Liberty Award in 1999 for its contribution to the democratic process and to the political discourse.
"Obviously we were naïve," said Dave Nichols, Democratic Webmaster, "in assuming that no one would bother to hack into a public service site like ours. Based on this experience, we have tightened our security, and don't expect any further incidents." Speaking of the numerous Ridgefield political, civic, and public service organizations which have opened web sites subsequent to the Democrats doing so, Nichols added, "We'd like to alert our friends who operate web sites in town to re-inspect their security, tighten up access controls, and take appropriate precautions. Evidently there are some mean-spirited people out here, with just enough technical knowledge to cause problems."
James Diamond said, "We apologize to visitors to our web site for any disruption in our service due to this incident. We'd also like to thank and to commend our web site host, CyberZone of Hartford, for quickly finding and correcting this intrusion." Diamond acknowledged that based upon average weekly traffic to the Democratic Web site, over 1000 visitors to the site could have been affected.
[NOTE to our visitors: We delayed publicizing this incident, and are releasing only limited information at this time, in the interest of the investigations which are now going forward. THANKS to those of you who reported this incident; it was through the early notice you provided that we were able to correct the problem so quickly.]
GO TO
Campaign News
Brought to you by the Ridgefield, Ct.
Democratic Town Committee, Jim Diamond, Chairman
Paid for by The Ridgefield Democratic Town Committee, Edwin C. Pearson, Treasurer
