Labor Department investigating hack

A Labor Department website is off-line as officials investigate a hack that compromised an agency program on April 30.

The hack, reported by various media outlets on May 1 after private-sector security experts discovered it, has been confirmed by Labor officials, although the extent of the fallout remains unclear.

"A DOL program appeared to be compromised," the agency said in a statement. "The website was immediately taken off-line, and the department began working with appropriate internal and external authorities to investigate."

Several publications reported that hackers planted code on www.sem.dol.gov that redirected site visitors to other pages containing malware that attacked visitors’ computers. Labor officials did not provide specific information about how the attack occurred.

The Site Exposure Matrices website contains information on sickness and toxins associated with nuclear manufacturing. Officials said there is no evidence that information was compromised or lost, and the hack didn’t disrupt any of the agency’s other services.

It is unclear how many visitors were exposed to any potential malware. When reached by phone, a Labor spokesperson said only that agency officials were conducting an investigation and could not specify a time frame for its conclusion.