Taiwanese engineer pleads self defence in hacking case

Magic web site unwitting host of Trojan horse

By John Leyden • Get more from this author

Posted in Security, 23rd February 2001 16:59 GMT

Free whitepaper – Certify your software integrity with Thawte code signing certificates

A Taiwanese computer engineer has pleading self defence after he allegedly hacked the server of a magic teaching Web site.

According to a report in Taipei Times, the engineer attacked the unnamed magic Web site in the belief that its administrators were attacking his servers.

However the Criminal Investigation Bureau in Taiwan believe that the magic Web site was a completely innocent party which was infected with the NetBus Trojan horse. Through this piece of malicious code, a user from outside Taiwan was attacking the engineer's servers, according to the CIB.

The engineer, whose name is only given as Fan, allegedly decided to take revenge and 'counter-attacked' the magic Web site, in an attempt to warn attackers off.

Taiwanese investigators are not impressed by this explanation and are treating Fan as a suspect in a case of criminal damage.

In related news, earlier this week Chinese hackers have defaced more than 30 Web sites in the country, including several belonging to Internet service provider Beijing Telecom, in an apparent protest about disrupted Internet service. Internet connectivity from China has been severely constrained since a fibre optic cable under the Pacific Ocean was severed earlier this month.

According to The South China Morning Post, the sites were defaced with a message with said: "This is just a warning to the telecom departments for your slow restoration of the cable."

Heaven forbid if British hackers thought the same way and attacked UK telcos for the slow-roll out of high-speed Internet services... ®