Interesting; a few weeks ago I noticed the Iowa DPS site was down and a press release indicated the site had been compromised. It was an unintended Amber Alert that put the DPS on notice that its website had been breached. So what or who hacked into the site and why?

Here is a link to the  press release from November 29, 2010. For those who aren't familiar, the Iowa DPS is the Department of Public Safety which includes the Iowa State Patrol, the Iowa Fire Marshall and a whole host of other critical safety agencies.

The corrective press release said little about what the breach was or who did what and when. What was the cause? Here is the ‘explanation’ from December 14, 2010.

Des Moines, IOWA --- The Iowa Department of Public Safety, along with the Iowa Broadcasters Association, will test the AMBER Alert System today.  The AMBER Alert website was breached on November 27, 2010. The cause of the breach was identified and corrective measures have been taken.

Hmmmmm…. What’s up? I’ll write and ask. Wrote on January 1, 2011.

UPDATE: I wrote and asked what occurred to cause the breach and was told what was already mentioned in the Press Release. Here is the explanation.

Mr. Lombardi,

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Department of Administrative Services’ Information Technology Enterprise are still investigating this breach (potentially a criminal investigation), so many of the questions you are asking cannot be answered at this time.

What we can tell you is someone or some entity hacked into the AMBER Alert web site and sent out and triggered an AMBER Alert.  This site is on the same server as the Crash Reports site.  So, as a precautionary measure, both were taken down immediately.  Once the vulnerability was identified and repaired by our IT folks, both sites were restored.

The two releases below were distributed when the sites were taken down and then put back on-line.

http://www.dps.state.ia.us/commis/pib/Releases/2010/11-29-2010_WebsiteInvestigation.htm

http://www.dps.state.ia.us/commis/pib/Releases/2010/12-08-2010_AMBERAlertsiteup.htm

Please feel free to contact us if you have more questions. 

I hope you find both the AMBER Alert and Crash Reports site useful.

Jessica Lown
Information Specialist
IA Dept. of Public Safety
215 E. 7th St.
Des Moines, IA 50319
515-725-6189
lown@dps.state.ia.us