Accomplishment As Artwork

Two lawmakers have criticized a web services company that allegedly enabled the hacking of about 50 government websites on managed hosting servers just recently. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Ohio Representative John Boehner asked the US House Leaders Chief Administration Officer to assess how the hackers managed to get into the websites of almost 50 committees and house members.
The said attacks appeared to predominantly target the Democrats, occurring around the time that President Barack Obama delivered his first State of the Union address. The hackers removed the regular content on the affected websites and replaced it with rude comments directed at the president.
In their letter, Pelosi and Boehner also referred to a previous request to the same organization to tighten the security on the federal websites. They wrote that the recent incidents suggest that a further review of security procedures have to be conducted.
Initial reports suggest that the said security shortfall could be attributed to a vendor that providers hosting and support services. According to the letter, many of the members of the House have already expressed their satisfaction with the said vendor but this is the second time within a year that the websites hosted and supported by the company have been compromised.
The lawmakers did not identify the vendor in question but a spokesman for the CAO identified the company as GovTrends to the Associated Press. This is the same firm that provides support for the website of Representative Spencer Bacus which was hacked back in August of last year. GovTrends did not list which websites it serves but it does feature Representative Michael Honda’s site which is still inaccessible due to the recent attacks.