200 SA sites defaced

By Damian Clarkson, ITWeb junior journalist

Johannesburg, 31 Jan 2005

A group of hackers has compromised nearly 400 sites, half of which were local.

The sites were hacked either late last night or sometime this morning by the Infektion Group, says Dino Covotsos, owner of local security company Telspace. "In total, there were 397 defaced, of which around 200 were on a local server and had South African domains."

The compromised sites feature a picture of a young child and the message: "This is the real imagen of the society. Greetz: Augusto( 'E nois aqui de novo ), Naiana, Podres and all the peaple that I Know."

A recent check showed most sites still appear to be compromised.

It is highly unlikely the server was specifically targeted, but rather that the server was vulnerable during a mass scan, says Covotsos. "I don`t think that the ISP was deliberately targeted, as many other servers were hacked in a mass defacement effort."

The Infektion Group hackers have carried out a number of attacks in the past. According to the Zone-h Web site, the group has carried out 20 581 attacks, of which 2 235 are single IP, and 18 346 mass defacements.

The group, which comes from Brazil, has in the past posted political messages and is fairly well known, says Covotsos. "They are not shy to leave their details. They know what they are doing and are very quick."