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Oregon Secretary Of State Webpage Hack 'Asymmetrical Warfare'

Oregon's new chief information officer hinted Wednesday that the recent attack on the Secretary of State's website was motivated by politics rather than money.

Speaking on OPB's Think Out Loud, Alex Pettit called it a sophisticated attack by a sophisticated opponent.

"We've moved from people looking to steal identities or to steal credit card information for financial gain or whatever to really organizations that are engaging in asymmetrical warfare. Folks that don't like us," said Pettit.

Pettit said now that the state has figured out how the website was hacked, it is moving to close similar vulnerabilities in other state websites.

Pettit moved to Oregon from Oklahoma and started his job last month.

He took over from Carolyn Lawson, who oversaw the roll-out of the Cover Oregon website and resigned in December.

Copyright 2014 Oregon Public Broadcasting

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