Town of Smithtown's Website Hacked

Smithtown residents could be in for a surprise if they tried to access the Town of Smithtown's website on Tuesday afternoon. 

Patch readers began reporting that the Town of Smithtown's main website had been hacked causing an advertisement for the prescription drug Viagra to appear at the top of the town's homepage. 

Kenneth Burke, director of Smithown's Information Technology department, said the town had receive a handful of calls as of 4 p.m. Tuesday and was aware of the issue. The hacked website, the frequency of its appearance and how exactly it was done were puzzling as Burke said it appeared to behave differently from other hacked websites. 

"It's very strange. It seems that it is dependent on what ISP or how you are accessing the Internet. Normally, a website is hacked or its not hacked," Burke said.

He said preliminary investigations showed those users who had Cablevision, Optimum Online or Verizon would not see the hacked website, but were directed to the Town of Smithtown's homepage without issue. 

However, those who were using other providers or accessing the website from outside the Town of Smithtown area were seeing a text advertisement for Viagra, a prescription drug for men. There were no profane or sexual images involved. 

Burke said town officials had already placed a phone call to the third-party website provider, who was looking into the problem and trying to figure out where the website had been compromised. 

"We are trying to get it resolved as soon as we can. It's acting a little odd, as it's not consistent depending on what site you are accessing," the director stated. 

Are you or have you seen the hacked version of the Town of Smithtown's website? What Internet provider were you using?