Credit union Web site falls to hacker

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Credit union Web site falls to hacker

Over the weekend, hackers hit a number of government-connected sites, defacing them with Chinese propaganda. A Pinellas site is hit, too. By MIKE BRASSFIELD

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 2, 2001

Over the weekend, hackers hit a number of government-connected sites, defacing them with Chinese propaganda. A Pinellas site is hit, too. LARGO -- The ongoing cyber war between U.S. and Chinese hackers reached the Tampa Bay area Tuesday when a hacker defaced the Web site for the Pinellas County Employees Federal Credit Union.

Before it was shut down Tuesday afternoon, the Internet site was defaced with "cyber-graffiti" similar to the pro-China, anti-U.S. statements that have appeared on a number of government Web sites in the past few days.

The credit union's Web site at www.pinellascountyfcu.org normally offers customers information about financial services. On Tuesday, it displayed a waving Chinese flag along with propaganda written in Chinese and poor English.

The hacker left a message about the Chinese jet pilot killed in a collision with a U.S. surveillance plane one month ago.

"Recall Our Airman Wang Wei Deeply! We Pride and be Proud of You!" said the graffiti on the Web site. "USA Will Be With Responsibility for the Accident Total!!! Protest USA sell Weapon to Taiwan, Break the World Peace Strongly!!!"

It was signed, "A Guy from China -- Peak."

Further complicating matters, the credit union was closed for employee training Tuesday, and no one was answering its phones.

The credit union's president, Linda F. Reynolds, said the electronic attack only defaced the credit union's home page, which is operated by an Internet service provider in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.

She said hackers never gained access to the credit union's computers or internal files.

"What they penetrated was the home page, which is on the other side of our fire wall," Reynolds said. "We have the highest security possible. It didn't penetrate into the credit union at all."

The credit union's Web site provider told Reynolds that someone hacked into its Web server, which maintains home pages for a number of California government agencies.

"They were targeting government Web sites, and we just happened to be in the way," Reynolds said.

The Pinellas County government does not own the credit union, although it serves county employees and some county officials sit on its board.

It was not clear when the Web site would be back online.

Over the weekend, hackers hit about a dozen U.S. government sites in apparently coordinated attacks that amounted to little more than annoyances for Web site managers. The attacks took the form of cyber-graffiti, and no classified files have been reported breached.

The FBI has warned government agencies and companies about further such attacks this week. American hackers have retaliated, targeting dozens of Chinese sites.

http://www.sptimes.com/News/050201/news_pf/TampaBay/Credit_union_Web_site.shtml

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 04, 2001


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