Malware Strikes Official Wyckoff Website

Wyckoff's official township website was compromised by an as-of-yet unknown source, according to a township official.

The municipality's service provide has been notified, Township Administrator Bob Shannon said Monday afternoon.

"We are aware of problems and we have notified our service provider," Shannon said. "I am waiting for a returned call for an update when it will be resolved."

The website only contains public information generated by the township, not any taxpayer information or other sensitive data, Shannon confirmed.

The problem was first discovered by Wyckoff-Franklin Lakes Patch late Sunday evening, but according to the township they initially found the problem on Friday, Aug. 24. Township officials did not notify media or residents that a security threat had hit the website.

Malware is programming code usually designed to disrupt systems or extract data from the host and users.

As of 9 p.m. on Monday, when accessed with Google Chrome, the Wyckoff homepage no longer shows the pre-emptive warning screen. The township has updated the site with the following warning for residents:

"On Friday, August 24, we learned that our website may have been infected with malware. We immediately took action to remove any inappropriate software (we await clearance from some search services such as Google). Our website is accessible now but we recommend that anyone who accessed the site on Thursday evening, August 23, and/or Friday morning, August 24, run a standard anti-virus/anti-malware software as soon as possible as a safely precaution"

Late last year Ridgewood's village website was  traced back to Ukraine. Officials at the time said sensitive information was not compromised or extracted from the website.

Village officials told Patch last year that computer crimes in Eastern Europe are rarely prosecuted. 

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