War of the Worlds website hacked

The site appears to have been restored, but is the latest in a long line of websites that have been defaced this year by Brazilian groups. A hacking community known as "Simiens Crew" has attacked a number of sites this year, exploiting vulnerabilities in PHP and Advanced Web Statistics (Awstats).

But defacing the War of the Worlds site is a step up in profile. Mikko Hypponen, director of anti-virus research at Finnish outfit F-Secure suggested their efforts were "more interesting than the average web graffiti. Mainly because this one hits a really high-profile web site; the official home page of one of the biggest movies of the year".

Brazilian virus writers and hackers have increasingly hit headlines in recent months. In January SC reported how the Brazilian authored Lasco virus was a dangerous step forward is mobile phone malware.

www.waroftheworlds.com
www.f-secure.com