Pakistan group defaces NOAA Web pages

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2000/0717/web-hack-07-18-00.asp

BY Colleen OHara and Diane Frank
07/18/2000

Hackers calling for the United States to mediate the territorial
conflict in Kashmir attacked and defaced 11 National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration World Wide Web pages over the weekend.

The cyberattacks forced NOAA to shut down its Forecast Systems
Laboratory site indefinitely until security measures could be put in
place, according to a spokeswoman at the laboratory. She did not
elaborate on what security measures might be used or when the site
might be put back online.

The group "Gforce Pakistan" said it attacked the pages because it
wants to raise "global awareness" about the conflict over the
territorial rights to Kashmir. India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir
and have fought several wars over the territory.

The group asked the United States to step in and help resolve the
conflict. The hackers posted various messages on the government pages,
including photos of children allegedly killed during the struggle over
Kashmir.

It is not clear why Gforce Pakistan chose to deface the NOAA pages.
"Obviously they have a message, but it could be that they want to hit
high-profile sites and were looking for ones to put their message on,
or they wanted to get out their message and these were just the sites
they found that were open," said B.K. DeLong, a member of the
Attrition.org staff. Attrition.org posted the hacks on its site at
www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/gov.html

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