Monday, January 10, 2011

Probe into possible FG website data breach


T he Data Protection Commissioner is investigating whether the personal data of thousands of people was compromised during the attack on the Fine Gael website yesterday.Data Commissioner Billy Hawkes confirmed that Fine Gael contacted his office following the website attack. The Fine Gael website was forced offline last night after hackers attacked it removing the content and posting a message referring to censorship by the political party. Fine Gael rebranded its main website, finegael.ie, last week as finegael2011.com and invited members of the public to post comments and register their mobile numbers and email addresses to receive campaign messages. Mr Hawkes has confirmed that he has been contacted by Fine Gael in relation to the attack, as the party suspects that the personal data of those who posted comments or registered their details has been compromised. Fine Gael has also contacted the Garda Computer Crime Unit in relation to the attack. The Fine Gael website is now back online - the party confirmed that its website had been attacked by a group which called itself 'Anonymous'. An Evening Herald journalist has claimed on social networking website Twitter that he has been sent the details of 4,000 users of the Fine Gael website following the attack.

The Irish Data Protection Commissioner is investigating whether the personal data of thousands of people was compromised during the attack.Commissioner Billy Hawkes confirmed that Fine Gael contacted his office following the security breach, as the party suspects that the personal data of those who posted comments or registered their details has been compromised.The party has also contacted the Garda Computer Crime Unit in relation to the attack.Visitors to the FineGael2011 site were greeted with a logo of a suited figure whose head had been replaced by a question mark and the message: "Nothing is safe, you put your faith in this political party and they take no measures to protect you. "They offer you free speech yet they censor your voice. Wake Up."The site was launched to much fanfare last week by party leader Enda Kenny. It features a video of Mr Kenny sitting at a coffee shop and asking the nation for their thoughts on how to improve Irish politics.

source BBC

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