Brazilian hackers target Microsoft sites

From...

By James Evans

(IDG) -- A Brazilian band of hackers known as Prime Suspectz defaced four Microsoft Corp. Web sites last week, according to Attrition.org, a Web site that documents hacks.

The hackers defaced the MSNBC Sports Scoreboard site and evidence of the hack was still apparent as of Friday morning, according to a mirror image of the site defacement. Prime Suspectz slapped a picture of a nuclear explosion, tagged the image with the Prime Suspectz logo and offered a caption that partially read in Portuguese: "Prepare yourself for the Prime Suspectz marathon."

MESSAGE BOARD Security on the Net   IDG.net INFOCENTER IDG.net's main page Free daily newsletters Instant help from the Dummies Network Computerworld Communities Features How to make your PC a fortress Napster alternatives The best low-cost PCs Visit an IDG site Choose a site: IDG.net CIO Computerworld Darwin Dummies.com GamePro.com The Industry Standard ITWorld.com InfoWorld.com JavaWorld LinuxWorld Macworld Online Network World Fusion PC World Publish.com UnixInsider IDG.net search

According to Attrition.org, the defacement did not show up at all times because the MSNBC site is run on a server farm. It only loaded up after repeatedly refreshing the Web page.

MSNBC spokesman Peter Dorogoff said security officials discovered the defacement of the Scoreboard site Friday morning. A third party runs the servers that house the Scoreboard and they were taken offline once the hack was discovered. By about 11 a.m. PDT, everything was back to normal, he said. The hack did nothing to the main MSNBC site, Dorogoff said. He said he was unaware of any other hacks done to MSNBC.

In addition to the MSNBC site, Prime Suspectz on Thursday also defaced the Web sites of Microsoft subsidiaries in Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the U.K., according to Attrition.org. On each defacement, Prime Suspectz boasted that it "owns MS" and, on at least two of the sites, stated that "Brazil Rulez."

Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said the Microsoft Mexico and Saudi Arabia sites were restored and corrected almost immediately. The Microsoft U.K. site was hacked in the middle of the night and was restored relatively quickly, he said. Third-parties run the sites for Microsoft in Mexico and the U.K and they are not connected to the Redmond, Washington's corporate network, he said. No consumer data was compromised by the three defacements, Desler said.

Prime Suspectz has made Microsoft a target in the past. It hacked the Microsoft New Zealand site in January.

Virus infects Microsoft support server
April 27, 2001
Microsoft security flaw can lead to Web attack
April 18, 2001
Microsoft set to roll out new MSN Explorer
April 16, 2001
Guninski finds another hole in MS Exchange security
March 29, 2001

Microsoft is victim of 'denial of service' attack
(IDG.net)
Microsoft admits defense against attacks was inadequate
(Computerworld)
How hackers hack
(PCWorld.com)
Multiple Web sites defaced in hacking spree
(Computerworld)
Microsoft victim of another security attack
(The Industry Standard)
Hacker nation
(PCWorld.com)
Brazil reacts to UOL hack
(The Industry Standard)
Hackers are out there
(Darwin)

Microsoft Corp.

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.