AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine's Secretary of State's office says no public data was affected in a recent phishing attack on government computers.
Spammers sent 1,600 emails to state employees but spam-blocking software kept all but 18 from reaching inboxes. Apparently an employee clicked on a link, which lead to a virus infecting computers at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the Maine State Archives and the Maine Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions.
The Secretary of State's office maintains that no public data was affected; all the infected computers serve internal purposes.
The attack happened Wednesday afternoon, Sept 25 and the office of information technology is working to remove the virus.
“All State employees complete annual training in cybersecurity measures since much of our work involves responding to emails from the public,” said Secretary Dunlap. “It presents a difficult challenge when viruses such as these are specially designed to look like legitimate correspondence. We are always continuing to improve our abilities to spot these harmful emails and prevent them from doing damage.”
SOS employees have been reminded to continue vigilance to guard against these cyber-attacks, and CEC is expected to have its computers back in service later Thursday. The Bureau of Motor Vehicles is closed Thursday for a bureau-wide staff training, unrelated to this virus attack.