A story posted on a US newspaper's website has suggested that Bill Gates has been arrested for breaking into "hundreds, maybe thousands" of computers including those of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena and Stanford University.
A story posted on a US newspaper's website has suggested that Bill Gates has been arrested for breaking into "hundreds, maybe thousands" of computers including those of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena and Stanford University.
However, the Orange County Register, which had originally posted a story reporting the arrest of hacker Jason Diekman, had itself been hacked by an unknown attacker who had altered some of the story's details.
The hacker substituted Diekman's name for that of Microsoft chairman Gates.
According to the story, Gates was facing two federal counts for breaking into Nasa computers: one charge of illegally obtaining credit card numbers and a further charge of fraudulent credit card purchases.
The paper, which is located in Southern California and owned by Freedom Communications, has turned over evidence it hopes will lead to the identity of the person who attacked it to the FBI, which has started an investigation.
Chris McNab, network security analyst at MIS Corporate Defence, said the attack on the paper highlights the need for administrators to be vigilant about the contents of their sites and put in place security procedures that will frustrate opportunistic hackers.
"With this kind of defacement everything looks fine at first sight. The system administrator won't realise anything is going wrong so a defacement might stay up longer," said McNab, adding that 'data poisoning', although rarer than more blatant defacement, is something companies need to guard against.
He explained that companies could protect themselves against defacement, and the legal liability it might bring, by putting in place security measures that would act as a practically insurmountable barrier to opportunists.
This can be achieved by establishing a proactive security policy, where the latest security patches are put in place, and putting in place technologies such as web fingerprinting and intrusion detection, he added.
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Microsoft has had another of its international websites broken into and defaced by hackers.
23 Jan 2001A cracker has broken into a leading computer security information website that survives hundreds of attempted hacks every week.
30 Oct 2000
UPDATED: Microsoft has admitted that source code for some of its products under development was seen by hackers who gained access to its corporate network.
30 Oct 2000Experts said that the breach of Microsoft's internal network could trigger a wave of increasingly powerful virus and network attacks if software source code, the blueprint of any program, had been accessed by hackers.
27 Oct 2000US prosecutors are investigating the hijacking of a local government website in which a hacker replaced the front page with a plea to save Napster, the music swapping site.
13 Oct 2000Although many hackers argue that they are merely airing grievances rather than causing malicious damage, website administrators may unwittingly find themselves subject to libel action if their web pages carry defamatory material.
02 Oct 2000Claims that millions of US online bank accounts were easy targets for cyber criminals have been dismissed by the company hosting the servers.
25 Sep 2000The external supplier believed to be responsible for managing the areas of HSBC's website vandalised by a hacker this week has been criticised in connection with the incident.
22 Sep 2000Cyber-vandals are voicing support for Napster, the music file sharing service, as part of a campaign to deface websites across the world.
08 Sep 2000A US man has been arrested on charges of hacking into two computers at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1998, according to local reports.
20 Jul 2000A US man has been arrested for allegedly hacking into two computers at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1998, according to local reports.
13 Jul 2000Nasa has moved to calm fears that a computer hacker put the lives of space shuttle astronauts at risk during an attack on the space agency's communication systems.
04 Jul 2000NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been forced to shut down access from Brazil until its security team can make improvements to its network.NASA said there was several recent attacks on the lab originating from websites in Brazil. As a temporary move network access to JPL from Brazil has been blocked.
22 Mar 2000
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