'L33T' web defacer blames Durham police for Pakistani conflict

UR SECURITY IS ZERO%

By Chris Williams • Get more from this author

Posted in Policing, 9th November 2009 13:03 GMT

Free whitepaper – Blade learning lab and technical community

Police in Durham have been forced to take their website offline after it was defaced in apparent protest against the conflict in Pakistan.

The attacker, calling himself "L33T HACKER Ali.Mani" left a message on the site, saying:

UR SECURITY SUCKS UK POLICE THIS IS MY REVENGE AGAINST U

U ARE THE ONE WHO ARE BLASTING BOMB IN PAKISTAN

N0W STOP THIS ALL BATTLE ELSE I WILL FUCK UR SITE + SERVER

UR SECURITY IS ZERO%

There's another example of a defacement claimed by "L33T HACKER Ali.Mani" here at Zone-H.

A spokesman for Durham Constabulary said the site would be restored as soon as it is secured. Investigators believe the force was not the only target of the attack, he added.

In common with other forces, Durham Constabulary's website is not connected to operational systems, so the defacement represents more of an embarrassment than a serious breach.

However, the attack comes amid increasing scrutiny of police information security after the Association of Chief Police Officers published its cybercrime strategy in August.

Last week we revealed that five forces have been hacked in the last year, and the ACPO declined to confirm whether those attacks affected operational systems, but it is known each caused an unspecified outage of three days or more. ®

Free whitepaper – PowerEdge energy Smart brochure