Obama campaign hopes for better Web security

Two months after their Web site was hacked, the organizers of Barack Obama's presidential campaign are looking for a network security expert to help lock down their Web site. Security experts said this is the first time they can remember seeing a Web security job advertised for a political campaign. In fact, Internet security has not always been a priority on political Web sites, according to Paul Ferguson, a network architect with computer security company Trend Micro. "Normally, I don't think they've paid much attention to it," he said. Sen Obama's Web site, built by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, has been the model of Web 2.0 campaigning, using social-networking techniques to raise funds and build a broad base of active, Internet-savvy supporters. But security experts have long warned that powerful Web site features also open new avenues for attack. With the Internet driving the majority of the campaign's contributions, Web security is probably more important to Obama than it has been to any other presidential candidate. A Web outage could cost his campaign millions of dollars, and a widely publicized privacy breach could put the brakes on his most important source of cash.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/06/12/Obama_campaign_hopes_for_bette...