Anzhe Zhang
Last week, the Colorado state-run government website was subject to being hacked, in what the Governor’s Office of Information Technology called “a cyberattack claimed by an anonymous suspected foreign actor that targeted multiple state government services and websites across the United States.”
Now computer experts believe that Russia was behind the attack, likely as a response to sanctions that the U.S. and individual states have placed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.
“Governor Polis (D) basically said look beware there are folks who are interested because of our active participation in the sanctions we can expect to be attacked,” Steve Beaty, the chair of the Metropolitan State University of Denver’s computer science department, said.
Beaty was referring to Polis’s executive order back in February, which reviewed any contracts the state may have had with Russia.
“We’re committed to making sure the state of Colorado is not in any way empowering the regime of Vladimir Putin of Russia and we are looking to take every additional step we can to penalize Putin,” Polis said then.
Now a Russian hacking group has claimed to be the perpetrators of the attack on the instant messaging app Telegram.
Though the website was quickly restored, the cyberattack has caused concerns for the upcoming midterm elections.
The Governor’s Office of Information Technology said no further details were available at this point, citing “the sensitivity of the cyberattack and its criminal nature.”
