Hackers deface 45 local websites
11th March 2005 (The Star)
BY RASLAN SHARIF

PETALING JAYA: A total of 45 Malaysian websites have been defaced since the beginning of the year, the Malaysian Computer Emergency Response Team (MyCERT) said.

The number of such attacks on Malaysian websites "increased tremendously" since last week, MyCERT said on Wednesday.

Most of the recently defaced sites were posted with messages of "hatred and dissatisfaction against the Malaysian Government," it said.

MyCERT urged website administrators to report such acts or any attempts to deface their sites.

Malaysian websites are no strangers to defacements by hackers.

Statistics compiled by the National ICT Security and Emergency Response Centre (Niser) showed that hundreds of websites came under attack last year.

Local websites were defaced en masse in two major attacks last year. In January 129 websites - mostly government sites - were defaced by a group of South American hackers.

These were among more than 200 local websites in total that were defaced in the first quarter of last year.

In August, about 100 websites were attacked in an act of mass defacement perpetrated by three foreign hacker groups.

Website defacement attempts can be stopped by implementing sound computer security practices, local experts say.

"While it is impossible to totally protect an entire computer network against attack, it is possible to secure your website from such acts," Niser director Lt-Col Husin Jazri told The Star on Tuesday.

Hackers were able to deface the websites largely due to insufficient security measures implemented by the operators, he added.