Owen Sound city websites taken down following porn attack

A person typing on their keyboard is seen in this file photo.

OWEN SOUND, Ont. -- It could be two weeks before Owen Sound's city websites, pulled down following a virus attack, are back online.

Owen Sound officials say they're dealing with a problem that occurred on Sunday, when specific links on the city sites redirected users to a pornography website.

Owen Sound Mayor Deb Haswell wants to assure residents that no private information has been compromised.

Haswell says the attack hit an external web server, so none of the city's private records were affected in any way.

The websites were taken down early Monday morning and brought back online Wednesday afternoon, only to be taken down again on Thursday morning.

Haswell says a security systems firm has been hired to help resolve the problem, which my require rebuilding the websites entirely -- and one by one.

Owen Sound IT manager Jamie Walpole says about 1,500 people visit the city's main website each day, and about one in every 100 users was redirected to the porn site.

The virus affected the Owen Sound's corporate website, the Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Owen Sound Tourism, the Owen Sound and North Grey Union Public Library, Owen Sound Police and Owen Sound Fire and Emergency Services.

Haswell calls the incident malicious, frustrating, embarrassing and upsetting.