- Banned
- #1
Dont U Just Love It When Something Bad Happens To Our Government!
This was in todays Age! And these guys are class.
Australia hit in international website attacks
By BARRY PARK
FAIRFAX IT
Monday 22 January 2001, 10:51 AM
Defaced Australian websites
Screenshot of hacked Western Australian Government site.
Australia has been the target in a series of mass website defacements at the weekend attacking governments worldwide.
Defacement monitoring group Attrition said defacers known only as Pentaguard “took out various government websites from three countries - the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States”.
“While the message was the same on all websites targeted, we are intrigued by the fact that this was not a mass defacement of a series of government websites within an agency or even within a country - but three different nations in different time zones all at the same time with all sites remaining defaced for a period longer than 15 minutes,” an analysis of the defacements says.
The unspecified number of defacements attacked a number of federal and state government agencies in each of the countries targeted.
“Australian targets were similar to those in the UK with one notable exception - Pentaguard took down a legislative search application for the entire Commonwealth of Australia, similar to the US Library of Congress' Thomas archive,” Attrition said.
Australian sites cracked include Australian Institute of Marine Science, Brighton Council, Tasmania; Campbelltown City Council, New South Wales; the City of Salisbury, South Australia; Salisbury Strategic Directions 2000; the Queensland State Archives; the Government of Western Australia's E-commerce Initiative; northern Victoria's Goulburn Valley Water; the City of Joondalup, Western Australia; Leichhardt Municipal Council, New South Wales; the Ports Corporation of South Australia; Pine Rivers Shire Council, Queensland; the Queensland Nursing Council's secure server; and the Queensland Nursing Council website.
However, the crown of the Australian defacements was the Commonwealth of Australia LawSearch Online website, which was today still offline.
“Pentaguard is no stranger to government and military website defacements,” Attrition said.
“A breakout page containing 48 of their previous defacements (http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/pentaguard.html) includes a plethora of US government and military websites from the army, navy and air force to the National Institute of Health, Department of Treasury, the US court system and both NASA and Department of Energy websites,” it said.
Attrition said Pentaguard also had defaced sites of governments including China, Kuwait, Romania, Georgia, and Vietnam.
Pentaguard was also responsible for a defacement on IDG Communications' Apache-based Linuxworld website yesterday at www.linuxworld.com.au.
IDG Communications online director Ben Gerholt said the breach was made via an FTP server, used to transfer files between remote computers, deliberately left open over the Christmas period.
"We weren't very careful, but you learn your lessons and no real harm was done," Gerholt said.
Meanwhile, international software giant Microsoft has been forced to redirect the front page of its website after crackers hijacked the microsoft.com domain.
A whois inquiry on the domain shows that all the former Microsoft administrative details have been replaced with comments including ``MICROSOFT.COM.SHOULD.GIVE.UP.BECAUSE.LINUXIS GOD.COM''.
Shortly after the crack, the website pointed to another page announcing the site was ``under construction''. Microsoft Australia was unavailable for comment.
This was in todays Age! And these guys are class.
Australia hit in international website attacks
By BARRY PARK
FAIRFAX IT
Monday 22 January 2001, 10:51 AM
Defaced Australian websites
Screenshot of hacked Western Australian Government site.
Australia has been the target in a series of mass website defacements at the weekend attacking governments worldwide.
Defacement monitoring group Attrition said defacers known only as Pentaguard “took out various government websites from three countries - the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States”.
“While the message was the same on all websites targeted, we are intrigued by the fact that this was not a mass defacement of a series of government websites within an agency or even within a country - but three different nations in different time zones all at the same time with all sites remaining defaced for a period longer than 15 minutes,” an analysis of the defacements says.
The unspecified number of defacements attacked a number of federal and state government agencies in each of the countries targeted.
“Australian targets were similar to those in the UK with one notable exception - Pentaguard took down a legislative search application for the entire Commonwealth of Australia, similar to the US Library of Congress' Thomas archive,” Attrition said.
Australian sites cracked include Australian Institute of Marine Science, Brighton Council, Tasmania; Campbelltown City Council, New South Wales; the City of Salisbury, South Australia; Salisbury Strategic Directions 2000; the Queensland State Archives; the Government of Western Australia's E-commerce Initiative; northern Victoria's Goulburn Valley Water; the City of Joondalup, Western Australia; Leichhardt Municipal Council, New South Wales; the Ports Corporation of South Australia; Pine Rivers Shire Council, Queensland; the Queensland Nursing Council's secure server; and the Queensland Nursing Council website.
However, the crown of the Australian defacements was the Commonwealth of Australia LawSearch Online website, which was today still offline.
“Pentaguard is no stranger to government and military website defacements,” Attrition said.
“A breakout page containing 48 of their previous defacements (http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/pentaguard.html) includes a plethora of US government and military websites from the army, navy and air force to the National Institute of Health, Department of Treasury, the US court system and both NASA and Department of Energy websites,” it said.
Attrition said Pentaguard also had defaced sites of governments including China, Kuwait, Romania, Georgia, and Vietnam.
Pentaguard was also responsible for a defacement on IDG Communications' Apache-based Linuxworld website yesterday at www.linuxworld.com.au.
IDG Communications online director Ben Gerholt said the breach was made via an FTP server, used to transfer files between remote computers, deliberately left open over the Christmas period.
"We weren't very careful, but you learn your lessons and no real harm was done," Gerholt said.
Meanwhile, international software giant Microsoft has been forced to redirect the front page of its website after crackers hijacked the microsoft.com domain.
A whois inquiry on the domain shows that all the former Microsoft administrative details have been replaced with comments including ``MICROSOFT.COM.SHOULD.GIVE.UP.BECAUSE.LINUXIS GOD.COM''.
Shortly after the crack, the website pointed to another page announcing the site was ``under construction''. Microsoft Australia was unavailable for comment.
