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Hacker sinks the British Navy

by on09 November 2010


Something that the Spanish Armada could not manage
A Romanian hacker has done something that the Germans, French and Spanish never managed to do – sink the British Navy.

The Royal Navy website has been suspended while security teams work out how a Romanian hacker known as TinKode managed to shut it down. The hacker gained access to the website on 5 November using a SQL injection which is not exactly rocket science. (November 5? Guy Fawkes is alive and well in Romania. sub.ed.)

He then published details of the information he recovered, which included user names and passwords of the site's administrators. The Royal Navy website currently shows a static image on which is a black box bearing the text: "Unfortunately the Royal Navy website is undergoing essential maintenance. Please visit again soon."

TinKode showed off his attack on his Twitter stream and added a web link to a page that contained more details about what he had found. This text file contained the names of the site's administrators and many regular users, so nothing top secret. Media friendly insecurity expert Graham Cluely from Sophos, said the incident was "immensely embarrassing, particularly in the wake of the recent security review where hacking and cybercrime attacks were given the top priority.
Last modified on 09 November 2010
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