© 2024 KGOU
News and Music for Oklahoma
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Oklahoma City's Website Hit With Two Denial-Of-Service Attacks

A screenshot of an attempt to visit the City of Oklahoma City's website Wednesday morning.
Brian Hardzinski
/
KGOU
A screenshot of an attempt to visit the City of Oklahoma City's website Wednesday morning.

The City of Oklahoma says its website was the victim of a second denial-of-service, or DOS attack, in as many days early Wednesday morning.

At 7:44 a.m. the city tweeted its website was down, so KGOU reached out via the social media platform.

Zach Nash is a creative manager for the City. He said they were being hit from Russia, China, and the United States by hundreds of computers infected by bots designed to send so much information to a network or a server that legitimate web traffic is blocked.

"There was a Twitter account that said they were taking responsibility for it. They didn't say why they were," Nash said.

Oklahoma City IT staff is working to get software installed to block any future attacks.

"With the security world, there's nothing that's foolproof, but we're trying to take steps to prevent this from happening again," Nash said.

So far there’s no evidence residents’ personal or confidential information was accessed.

"Right now we know that it was a denial-of-service attack, which is different from a hack," Nash said. "But we are monitoring that traffic and making sure, and if we do find out that happened, we will let people know as quickly as possible and take steps to mitigate that."

-----------------------------------------

KGOU is a community-supported news organization and relies on contributions from readers and listeners to fulfill its mission of public service to Oklahoma and beyond. Donate online, or by contacting our Membership department.

Brian Hardzinski is from Flower Mound, Texas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. He began his career at KGOU as a student intern, joining KGOU full time in 2009 as Operations and Public Service Announcement Director. He began regularly hosting Morning Edition in 2014, and became the station's first Digital News Editor in 2015-16. Brian’s work at KGOU has been honored by Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI), the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters, the Oklahoma Associated Press Broadcasters, and local and regional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists. Brian enjoys competing in triathlons, distance running, playing tennis, and entertaining his rambunctious Boston Terrier, Bucky.
More News
Support nonprofit, public service journalism you trust. Give now.