EU's 'Safer Internet' site hacked
Site remains down; Internet safety suffers.
By Kieren McCarthy, The Register
June 13, 2001 1:59 PM PT
The European Union's attempt to promote a safer Internet and "tackle the controversial issue of illegal and harmful content on the Internet" has been hacked and is still down a day later.
The unknown hackers left this message on SaferInternet.org: "This is our world! We are god and we make the rulezzzzz Happy finding us! The Netherlands is tha place! www.hal2001.nl". Unobjective egotism aside, the irony is delightful.
The URL directs to the Hackers At Large meeting at the University of Twente in the Netherlands in August, although there's no evidence that the hackers are actually Dutch. A mirror of the hacked site is here.
Perhaps even more embarrassing than being hacked though, is the number of holes and dodgy security on the site.
Paul Rogers from MAS Corporate Defence Solutions had this to tell us: "The server is not as secure as it should have been; it would seem some patches hadn't been installed. The VNC, ColdFusion system ports, FTTP access and MS single server port were all open. It was only going to be a matter of time before it was hacked."
Rather embarrassing for a site promoting greater security. "It's clear best practice rules have not been followed," Paul commented.
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