Tragedy compounded: NASA hacked
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | (UPI) Several servers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory were hacked Saturday and replaced by pages with political messages critical of U.S. policy in Iraq, IT World reports.
The timing was unfortunate, with the loss of space shuttle Columbia Saturday marked one of the worst days in NASA history since the space shuttle Challenger tragedy. According to U.K. security company mi2g Ltd., which reported the break-in, self-titled Trippin Smurfs hackers attacked nine of the JPL's servers starting just after 2 p.m. PST Saturday.
The attacks lasted more than an hour and a half, mi2g said, and targeted servers supporting the jpl.nasa.gov Web site. Among the commentary replacing the normal content: "I noticed that a war with Iraq is imminent... and i wonder why?!... When is this going to stop? Why does U.S. attack Iraq?" NASA spokesman Brian Dunbar told IT World the affected machines were taken offline for about five hours following the attack.
Mi2g said it was unclear whether Trippin Smurfs were related to fundamentalist hacker groups such as the pro-Islamic Unix Security Guard, and whether the attack was prompted by the Columbia disaster, although the replaced pages did not mention the lost space shuttle. NASA is working with law enforcement officials to track down the perpetrators of the attack, IT World said
