Charbonneau commission has been hacked
Commission into Quebec’s construction industry has web site hacked
The Charbonneau commission into corruption in the construction industry has been hacked, and according to reports, the hacking came at the hands of “White Hat” hackers.
Last week, Justice France Charbonneau, the head of the commission, revealed an anonymous and secure website and invited the public to use it to report shady practices in the province’s construction industry. But hold on – the email address available to snitch or send tips was breached and temporarily shutdown and the e mail deactivated.
In this case they intercepted seven emails containing ‘delicate information’ to show the flaws inherent in the Commission’s site
By definition, a White Hat describes someone who identifies a security weakness in a network. In many cases, a white hat is a knowledgeable professional who can expose network weakness or vulnerabilities, and then inform a company, or client, on how to patch it and prevent it. Sometimes, white hats do it for fun and just call up the company and let them know.
Others do it intentionally, and then ask for money to fix it.
Today’s white hats are professionals, have genuine “calling cards” and not a “calling card” left on a company network., with a pay-me-or-else message. This means, we are in collaboration with clients, hired by clients to find these weaknesses and then advise on how to fix the potential problem.
There is not enough evidence to suggest those who hacked the Commission’s site actually asked for money to fix the problem, but it seems the Commission has already moved to fix the problem.
(http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20120229/mtl_charbonneau_120229/20120229/?hub=MontrealHome)
