By SÍLE MOLONEY
Image courtesy of the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics
New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) has learned that it was the target of a deliberate malicious cyberattack, specifically to the web server that houses, among other systems, JCOPE’s Lobbying Application and Financial Disclosure Statement Online Filing System.
The commission released a statement on Friday evening confirming its systems were taken down as a precaution earlier this week by the State Office of Information Technology Services (“ITS”) when it received an alert of suspicious activity on the commission’s web server. The cyberattack was only just confirmed after several days of preliminary forensic analysis by ITS.
State officials said the systems will remain offline until they can be brought back up safely. There is no initial timeframe for a resumption of online filings.
“We do not have any information at this time about who may have been behind the cyberattack, and although we do not know yet if there was an actual breach…
