US Administration Was Targeted by a Hacker

So far, the actual extent of the damages caused by the hacker that has successfully broken into the Treasurer's Office network from a back-up server is unknown. But the attacker roamed free through the computer system for more than 40 minutes until his access was blocked. In this time he managed to launch a virus into the system, but the malware was annihilated before causing any damages.

The major issue at hand is that the attacker had access to confidential data of no less than 300.000 persons that participate in transactions such as child-support payments through the Treasury, and of 9.000 of its employees and the employees of businesses acting as intermediaries. Last year alone the Treasurer's Office in Nebraska dealt with over 233 million dollars in a total of 1.5 million payments, and has reached 1 billion dollars in processed transactions since the end of 2001.

"Based upon the method of attack, it is more likely the hacker's intent was not to steal information, but rather to do something malicious since the hacker inserted a virus onto the server, which we immediately removed," said State Treasurer Ron Ross. He also added that all the persons comprised in the Treasury's database should watch their bank accounts and report any suspicious transactions.