By RODNEY HART

Herald-Whig Staff Writer

The Quincy Police Department will be getting assistance from the FBI to help probe an alleged Web site hack, but no timetable for the investigation has been set.

Quincy Police Chief Rob Copley said last month a city-hosted Web site had a work e-mail address altered, which led the Police Department to ask the FBI for assistance in investigating the matter.

Jim Murphy, director of the city's Information Technology Department, filed a police report in early October stating that the Quincy United Soccer Club site had been accessed without authority and information had been "altered."

Copley said an agent at the FBI office in Springfield who was contacted earlier this week indicated that assistance would be offered. A number of federal agencies could help, but the FBI did not say what task forces or groups could potentially be involved.

Copley said there was no timetable on when the FBI would begin helping.

"We are asking for help because we don't have the resources locally to deal with the intrusion, nor does the state, to our knowledge, so we've gone to the federal level," he said.

Copley said Murphy stated the "intrusion" took place on more than one occasion between mid-July and mid-September. Murphy said his contact information on the Quincy United Soccer Club site was changed to his city e-mail address.

Quincy United is a nonprofit group of traveling soccer teams. The city permits state-approved nonprofit groups to use the city's server as a Web site host free of charge.

-- rhart@whig.com/221-3370