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Alaska Hacked.

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Hackers target state's computer network
COMPUTERS: Federal agencies investigate but aren't commenting.

By SEAN COCKERHAM
Anchorage Daily News

Published: February 10th, 2005
Last Modified: February 10th, 2005 at 05:38 AM


JUNEAU -- The FBI is looking into a recent rash of cyberattacks that hit the state's computer network.

"We are aware of it and it is a pending investigation so there is really very little I can say about it," FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez said.

Rep. Pete Kott, R-Eagle River, said a federal task force came to Alaska as part of the investigation. Kott said he believes the CIA and the Department of Homeland Security are also involved.

Kott said he was briefed on the situation by state officials.

"Anytime you've got the feds up in Alaska it's got to be a serious issue," Kott said. "The White House has been briefed on this."

He said the federal team came to Anchorage about two weeks ago and took piles of data back to Washington, D.C., to analyze.

Kott said the January attacks appear to have originated in Brazil, although hackers can disguise where their attacks are coming from. He said he was told there was a security breach, but it was unclear how widespread it was or which agencies were involved.

"I don't think we were the only state affected," said Kott, who led the Legislature's Information Technology subcommittee last year.

The Alaska Department of Administration, which oversees the state computer network, refused to answer questions about the investigation.

"We have no response, no comment," department spokesman Joe Holbert said.

Kott said the department was slow in letting the Legislature know about the problem. He said his office got wind of it and had to call state officials and ask what was going on.

"They were shocked that we even knew about it," Kott said Wednesday.

Stan Herrera, the state's director of enterprise technology services, said Tuesday that he was unaware of an FBI investigation.

Herrera told the Daily News in late January that the state was looking into increased activity of cyberattacks on the state network that month. He described it as "denial of service" attacks that made computers unresponsive. He said he could provide no estimate on the breadth of the attack because it was still being analyzed. But he said there was no indication sensitive material was stolen from state computers.

The state's computer network contains credit card numbers and other personal information that could be used for identity theft. Kott said there could also be "widespread havoc" if a hacker were to penetrate the Permanent Fund dividend division.

The division director, Sharon Barton, said in an interview that there was no evidence of that. The Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., which handles the billions of dollars in fund investments, is not on the state network and officials said it was not breached. Fund technology director Marshal Kendziorek said he checked the logs closely when the state network was attacked.

"We are extremely security conscious here, much more so than other places," Kendziorek said. "We've seen no intrusions."

For the past decade, Kott said, officials have likely not given enough attention to beefing up the security of the state computer network.

Kott said the Murkowski administration has moved, though, to review the system and to "basically come up with a better mousetrap."

He said it's not a high priority among members of the Legislature.

"Nobody understands computers. They know how to turn them on, turn them off, and to get onto the Internet," Kott said.

Kott said planned security upgrades were speeded up after the January cyberattacks, although more will likely be needed.

He said he expects the investigators to make recommendations.

"If it's sizable, multimillion dollar upgrades, which I'm guessing it's going to be, then we have to take a serious look at it," Kott said. "I don't think we have any choice but to take care of the problem."


Daily News Reporter Sean Cockerham can be reached in Juneau at [e-mail] or 1-907-586-1531.