Glitch hits Enron investigation site
A congressional committee looking into the Enron collapse shuts down a Web site relating to its investigation after it learns of a security hole.
An official from the U.S. House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee confirmed that its site was vulnerable because of a glitch in its IBM Lotus Domino database, which contained documents and information dating back to 1998.
The subcommittee learned of the problem from Kitetoa, a French computer security group that has also been responsible for uncovering security holes at DoubleClick.
The site was taken down as soon as the subcommittee learned of the problem and remained down for about an hour or so, said Ken Johnson, a spokesman for the subcommittee.
"The only thing which could be accessed were some old staff directories and benign correspondence. None of our sensitive documents, to the best of our knowledge, were infiltrated," he said.
The subcommittee will be bringing in outside security analysts "to ensure the sanctity of the data," he said.
IBM's Domino software provides e-mail, calendar programs and group scheduling, and it has been shown to have vulnerabilities; a hacking group uncovered a glitch in 1998.