Hackers force Hasbro to shut website

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Grassroots Information Coordination Center (GICC) : One Thread

Hackers force Hasbro to shut website

Amy Vickers Monday January 29, 2001

Games and toys manufacturer Hasbro pulled down its Atari website after it was defaced by hackers.

Hackers were so amazed by Atari.com's lack of security that they taunted the company with graffiti referring to its vulnerability and uploaded soft porn images onto the site.

They then emailed the tech people at Hasbro telling them of the security lapse and encouraging them to rectify it.

After 24 hours had passed and nothing had been done, the initial hackers carried on with their fun.

Eventually, after two days Hasbro's tardy tech team noticed and pulled down the site at 3pm on Thursday afternoon.

According to one web developer that witnessed the offensive, the site was easy to penetrate.

"If you went to www.atari.com/admin you were prompted for a username and password, these were both 'test' (an easy guess) and typing these in allowed you to edit the site, doing things like add and editing products in the shop database for example," said the developer, who wished to remain anonymous.

"I think this raises some interesting issues about a company's responsibility for the security and control of content on their website, especially when they are a recognised toy manufacturer, who I guess don't usually show porn to kids."

Hasbro was unavailable for comment.

http://www.mediaguardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,7496,429417,00.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 29, 2001


Moderation questions? read the FAQ