Colorado.gov restored after website targeted by hackers

If you typed in https://www.colorado.gov/ over the past two days, it showed the usual homepage was offline but that other state websites and services were available. Computer experts quickly suspected Russia was behind the hack.

Steve Beaty is chair of the computer science department at MSU Denver and believes Russian hackers are involved.

"Governor Polis basically said look beware there are folks who are interested because of our active participation in the sanctions we can expect to be attacked," said Beaty.   

In February Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order impacting the Russian Consul, reviewing any state contracts with Russian ties, and protecting against cyber attacks. 

"We're committed to making sure the state of Colorado is not in any way empowering the regime of Vladimir Putin of Russia and we are looking to take every additional step we can to penalize Putin," said Polis at the time. 

Now news reports attribute the attack on Colorado to Russian speakers. A hacking group declared on the app telegram that it was responsible for hacking the State of Colorado website as well as other states.

Beaty believes it may be a well-known group.

"Today, right now, it seems a similar attack to this particular group of Russian hackers who call themselves Killnet."

With Colorado and other states hit there is a concern nationally about the coming elections.

The website was restored on Thursday and running as usual. 

The Governor's Office of Information Technology issued a statement, "Due to the sensitivity of the cyberattack and its criminal nature, we do not have any further details at this time."