Pa. AG candidate Zappala's website hacked, campaign says

The campaign website for state attorney general candidate Stephen A. Zappala Jr. was down Tuesday, a week before the April 26 primary election, after what the campaign said was the second hack this month.

Instead of information about Zappala or links to donate to the campaign, the site featured ads for Frank Zappa T-shirts and concerts and Zappos, a shoe online retailer.

“We're not clear on who is hacking us, but we are certain that it is a hack and not simply a system malfunction,” said Marty Marks, manager of the Zappala campaign. “We have state-of-the-art security in place, but the hackers have found a way in. We have reported it to proper authorities and our web hosting service, and we are working diligently to get the site back up and keep it up.”

Zappala is running against Montgomery County Commission Chair Josh Shapiro and Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli for the Democratic nomination for attorney general.

Marks said the campaign reported the hack to the Beaver County District Attorney's Office because the web hosting service it uses is in Beaver County. The campaign paid Daniel J. Fox Jr. of Aliquippa $2,100 in January for web hosting services and $215 in February for design work, according to campaign finance filings. Fox's personal website, on which he states he has done design and web work for other political campaigns, appeared to be hacked as well Tuesday. He could not be reached for comment.

Donor and supporter information is kept in a separate database not accessible through the website, Marks said. Campaign contributions are processed through a secure, third-party server that was not affected by the hack.

Campaign staffers were unable to access Zappala's website Tuesday morning and were instead directed to a generic page displaying the ads. The campaign hired an Internet security company to look into the hack.

Marks said a similar hack happened about a week to 10 days ago. The site was quickly brought back online, but malware was found and removed.

Aaron Aupperlee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7986 or aaupperlee@tribweb.com.