The Rapid City Journal reports that the South Dakota Department of Transportation has temporarily taken their online bid system down. The system relies on a secure document storage service from security firm Comodo who’s systems for issuing SSL certificates were recently hacked. Here is the original article.
According to Tim Bjornberg of the South Dakota DOT, this hack caused Comodo to shut down their secure document storage service until they can improve security. As a result, the DOT cannot securely accept online bids for projects.
Like back in the 20th century, contractors now have to physically hand in their bids. The South Dakota Department of Transportation processes about 100 bids every month, representing as much as $30 million.
This is just another example of how important it is for security companies, especially companies that issue SSL certificates, to be extra vigilant when designing the security measure for their own systems. SSL is a cornerstone technology for the internet and a successful hack on an SSL system can have far reaching impact.