Indiana Government Website Targeted By Cyber Attacks
(CBS) -- The controversy over Indiana's so-called religious freedom law was not the only problem the Hoosier state faced Tuesday. It also fended off an apparent attack on its official website.
It was the second time since Friday that the IN.gov website was overwhelmed by simultaneous requests for service.
Graig Lubsen of the Indiana Office of Technology said the threat was known well before the controversy over the new law surfaced.
He was quick to say that the site was not hacked. Instead, it was inundated by millions of simultaneous requests for service, which slowed access to the site for some and timed out others.
Lubsen said countermeasures were ready, because the group that claimed responsibility published a list of sites it intended to target several weeks ago, and said "it has pretty much just gone down the list."
He said the Office of Technology expected the attack to occur sometime last week, and employed similar countermeasures Friday to fend off the first one.
Lubsen said similar denial of service attacks in recent weeks have hit 40 government sites in 27 states.