In a sign of a possible hack, a city's official website for news releases was peppered with blog entries on a variety of confounding — and decidedly not City Hall related — topics.
Among those were ads for mail-order Russian brides and posts about how to order a school term paper online. The source entries, many of which were nonsensical, is unknown.
Mary Benton, Houston's communications director, said she alerted the Houston information technology department after a news agency inquired about them. The listed author on the articles, a housing department employee, did not write and post them.
The posts, often in broken or garbled English, have appeared at least 29 times since Sept. 13, displayed as "uncategorized" entries among more routine posts about police and fire investigations and where to get a flu shot.
The entries have appeared on the city's news site, a WordPress blog that does not share a domain with the city's primary website.
Some of the spam entries also advise how to avoid computer viruses and write strong passwords. Others boast of a "superb matchmaking internet site for Hard anodized cookware women" (sic), or places "You Can Match Nerdy Women of all ages ... one particular woman made my cardiovascular go pitter-patter."
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