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Mr Bean ousts Zapatero from Spain's EU website
From: InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 03:03:11 -0600 (CST)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/05/mr-bean-hacker-zapatero By Giles Tremlett Guardian.co.uk 5 January 2010 The resemblance is, if anything, in the way their eyebrows arch. But that was enough for a computer hacker's caricature of the prime minister, Jos Luis Rodrguez Zapatero, as Mr Bean to spoil Spain's launch week as holder of the European Union's presidency. The beaming face of Rowan Atkinson's bumbling comic fool was transplanted on to the Spanish presidency's website yesterday. Where Zapatero's warm, smiling image should have been reassuring millions of Europeans that they were in his capable hands, the hacked website featured the radiant, if dangerously incompetent, Mr Bean. "Hi there!" was the suitably Beanish greeting to Spain's European presidency. The parody became an instant internet hit, with Spaniards flocking to visit their new leader. "So many people were looking for Mr Bean that [the site] collapsed during the afternoon," admitted a source at Zapatero's Moncloa Palace offices. Experts said a basic security hole involving cross-site scripting had allowed the hacker to play the joke. "The attack saw someone take advantage of a weakness in the so-called XSS code," the government's National Technology and Communications Institute said. [...] ________________________________________ Did a friend send you this? From now on, be the first to find out! Subscribe to InfoSec News http://www.infosecnews.org
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