A computer hacker tried to infiltrate the Service de transport de Wellington-Dufferin Student Transportation Services public website on the morning of Feb. 23.
On the day of the attempted hack, buses and school transportation were cancelled for all schools in Centre Wellington Township, Wellington North Township, the Town of Erin, Rockwood and Dufferin County, said Wendy Dobson general manager of Wellington-Dufferin Student Transportation Services.
“On Monday morning we [were] getting 15,000 hits on our website from our customers,” she said.
Dobson said the company first realized there was a problem when parents and students sent emails saying the website wasn’t running properly.
The website service provider, Mach One, was then contacted to investigate what was causing the site to run slowly. They soon realized it was because of a hacker from Turkey.
“This person was attempting (the website about) 900 times,” she said. “When they attempt, they’ll use multiple systems to try and hit a website and when they’re hitting it that many times, that just adds to our volume.
“They’re not getting in, but they’re trying to hit us,” she said. “So every time they try to hit us, the firewall goes up, another protection goes up, and as the system’s trying to do that, it tends to slow the system down.”
Dobson said the website’s security system held and the hacker never gained access.
“Whatever security we had worked,” she said. “They’ll try and try and then they’ll go away when they’re not successful.”
She added that the transportation website targeted is public and doesn’t contain any private information. The student data system is on a completely different server and wasn’t at risk with the attempted hack.
