AUGUSTA, Maine - Members of the Legislature's Government Oversight Committee were surprised to hear about the huge number of automated attacks that are made every day on state computer systems.
Jim Smith is the state's chief information officer who is in charge of most of the state's information technology systems.
"We need to do more on preventative measures and understand attacks," Smith told committee members. "We get attacked about two million times a day. Two million attacks on our sites - two million?? Two million a day. And that's common; all the states would say that."
Smith says having one of those attackers succeed can cost millions of dollars. He says one successful attack in South Carolina cost that state $24 million, and he says Maine needs to do more to protect all that data and information held in state computers.
"We get about 15 a day where we have to rebuild someone's work station because they got infected, so these are real costs and real expenses," Smith said.
