Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/1999/09/08/scottish_crackers_declare_war/

Scottish Crackers declare war on Wales

Sorry tale of sheep rustling and revenge on Scottish government web site

By Tim Richardson

Posted in On-Prem, 8th September 1999 14:33 GMT

It appears Braveheart hackers have carried out their threat to trash a Scottish government Web site after warning First Minister Donald Dewar that it was vulnerable to attack from cyber terrorists. A group calling itself the Hardcore Highland Haxxors (HHH) has defecated all over the Scottish Executive Web site and renamed it the Scottish H4xecutive. The new "civil servants" charged with advising Scottish politicians and enforcing their policy have also accused the "Whelsh" Office (sic) of rustling sheep. In retaliation, the HHH has declared that Scotland is now at war with Wales. "The Scottish H4xecutive has estimated that over 5000 sheep have been russled by agents of the Whelsh office in the last six months. It is of our opinion that these sheep that were destined for the butchers of Carslile will soon end up on the streets of Cardiff. "In force IMMEDIATELY is a state of WAR between us to put right the theft of our oh-so precious sheep." It's just a pity they aren't as concerned about their ability to spell as they are about their sheep, but there you go. A spokesman for the Scottish Executive said that although the incident was embarrassing there was "no threat to internal security". "Our internal system is quite separate from the information on our Web site," he said adding that all was being done to resolve the problem. The Scottish Executive Web site is hosted by Scotland Online, a subsidiary of Scottish Telecom. No one from the Web company or telco was available for comment at press time. ®