A Foreign and Commonwealth Office website was defaced by
a hacker last week, raising questions about the department's
security procedures.
The hacker, using the alias Shadow Moon, bypassed the
department's firewalls to post a picture of a space alien on the
website
http://forms.fco.gov.uk in
the early hours of Monday morning.
The hacker is believed to have exploited vulnerabilities either
in the Windows 2000 operating system or in applications running on
the site.
Web defacement was common three years ago, but today it is
unusual for high-profile websites to leave themselves open, said
Phil Robinson, technical director at security firm IRM.
"The government has got very capable security policies in place,
led by its Computer Electronic Security Group. There is not really
an excuse for falling prey to these attacks," he said.
A Foreign Office spokesman said an auxiliary server had been
defaced by the hacker, but the image was swiftly removed. "It did
not affect service to the public or in any way endanger government
information," he said.