AUGUSTA — Secretary of State Charlie Summers said today that the state’s website is secure in the wake of a breach at the Maine Department of Conservation that was discovered in December.

Summers, who serves as chair of the board that oversees maine.gov, said he wanted to reassure Mainers that their information is safe on the state website.

“There has been no breach of maine.gov,” he said. “I don’t want anyone in the state of Maine to be concerned that the information they use on maine.gov has been compromised in any way.”

Maine Department of Conservation spokeswoman Jeanne Curran said the department learned in February that the online system for the sale of state park passes, which was run by a private vendor, had been hacked. Infospherix of San Diego, Calif., told the state that about 1,000 credit card numbers may have been compromised between March 21 and Dec. 22, 2010.

“This was caught very early and to my knowledge there was no fraudulent activity at all taking place with people’s cards, but we still want people to check their card statement,” she said.

Letters have been sent to the card holders who may be impacted. The online park pass sales system has been taken down and the department is working with a new vendor to replace it, according to information released by the department. Passes are still available at the parks, by phone, on income tax forms or by mail.

Chief Information Officer Greg McNeal, who leads the Office of Information Technology, said the state website is under constant attack by viruses.

“We have significant firewalls,” he said. “It’s malicious software. There are numerous attempts on a daily basis. I don’t want to throw a number out there, but it’s high.”
 

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