Hytec reports on vulnerabilities of local authority websites

During December 2005, Hytec assessed the vulnerabilities of 20 local government websites, chosen as a representative sample of Borough, County, District and Metropolitan Councils.

Commenting on the findings, David Bryant, Hytec's managing director, said: "We conducted a similar assessment in 2003 and, although the 2005 results are encouraging in that they show a greater awareness of security matters in general, we still found that 70% of the sites we tested had at least one vulnerability that could be exploited by an attacker. The vast majority of these could have been resolved through good patch management policy."

"Every local government website has now become a potential target for attackers", said Bryant. "A skilled hacker will identify any vulnerabilities within 45 minutes at most. They could be seeking to disable the service, to monitor site activity, to deface or change website content, or even redirect visitors to another site so as to gather sensitive information."

For a copy of the six-page report, please call Hytec on 01865 887 428 or click here .