Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Police website is often target of hackers

- HEATHER POLISCHUK With files from the Prince Albert Daily Herald hpolischuk@postmedia.com Twitter.com/LPHeatherP

REGINA The Regina Police Service is not immune to attempts to hack its website, similar to what happened to the RPS’s Prince Albert counterpar­t.

On Wednesday, the Prince Albert Police Service’s site temporaril­y displayed a pro-ISIS message after an apparent hack by a group that has claimed responsibi­lity for a variety of other online attacks.

Prince Albert police removed the message that morning and went to work on restoring the site. A police spokesman said the site’s content is entirely public, meaning there was no informatio­n or privacy breach.

The Regina Police Service site is itself subject to attempted hacks fairly regularly, with police spokesman Les Parker — who works on the website — noting it happens “probably at least once a month.”

“Of course, they’re not successful, but it’s something that’s attempted and it’s usually done from out of the country, so a lot of times I don’t think we’re targeted specifical­ly for who we are, but it’s just the nature of hosting a website,” he said. “There’s random attacks that happen.”

Chief Evan Bray acknowledg­ed hacking is “a general concern for us at all times, not just with our website but all of our databases.”

 ??  ?? The Prince Albert Police Service’s website was hacked on Wednesday with a pro-Islamic State message briefly appearing before being removed.
The Prince Albert Police Service’s website was hacked on Wednesday with a pro-Islamic State message briefly appearing before being removed.

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