City’s website disrupted by hacker

The server that hosts the city of Providence website was hacked early yesterday morning, according to the mayor’s office. The website defacement attack “affected a large number of customers of the company that hosts the city’s website,’’ said a statement from David Ortiz, press secretary for Mayor Angel Taveras. The website allows residents to make property tax payments, search for city jobs, and submit construction plans for review online. The computer attack happened around 5:30 a.m., and the city’s information technology staff was alerted around 8:30 a.m., according to the statement. The website was restored by 9:30 a.m. The mayor’s statement said the city’s internal servers, data, and e-mails were not compromised during the attack.