Proceedings in the Italian Senate were disrupted this week after hackers used a computer worm to display hardcore gay porn on computer monitors.

Computers in the Senate chamber, and Senator's office, were affected by the attack which used variants of the Rbot worm to disseminate smut across the upper house of the Italian parliament. The Rbot family of worms includes a backdoor component which allows crackers to seize control of infected computers, steal information or in this case redirect users towards "inappropriate" content.

One theory suggests that the attack was motivated by the recent dismissal of Dario Mattiello, assistant to the Senate's Vice President, after photographs were distributed showing him at a gay nightspot in Rome. The move has led to sit-down protest outside the Senate building by Italian gay rights groups last week. ®

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