WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Democratic and Republican House leaders are demanding additional Web security measures after a cyberattack struck nearly 50 members' Web sites.
The House is investigating how a hacking group called "Red Eye Crew" could break into 49 members' Web sites Thursday, leaving a denouncement of President Barack Obama, The Hill reported.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio sent a letter to Chief Administrative Officer Dan Beard in which they called for greater cybersecurity in conjunction with Beard's work to strengthen House firewalls and BlackBerry security.
The attacks from the group based in Brazil occurred after Obama's State of the Union address Wednesday.
Pelosi and Boehner asked Beard to assess whether more security protocols were needed for outside vendors such as GovTrends, which maintains the hacked Web sites. More than a dozen GovTrends-maintained Web sites also were breached in August.
"From initial reports, these intrusions appear to be related to one (Web site) vendor which has had previous security failures," Pelosi and Boehner wrote. "While many members have expressed satisfaction with the vendor in question, this is the second time in a year (Web sites) hosted and supported by this vendor have been compromised."
