SA Government Web sites hacked

ITWeb reports that the www.gov.za site and several linked sites including www.gcis.gov.za were hacked and defaced by a group called \'byond crew\', which specialises in targeting open source operating systems. \'The good news is that the government\'s Web sites were cleaned up fairly quickly after the attack took place,\' says Barry Cribb, MD of IT security and networking company ISDigital Networks. \'The bad news is this will attract other hacking groups to see if they can do the same. This means they could find and exploit other vulnerabilities on the Web sites.\' Full ITWeb report

A South American hacker group, referring to themselves as the \'Beyond Hackers Team\' and an Iranian group calling themselves the \'Iran-Babol-Hackers-Security-team\', are also responsible for the recent wave of attacks. The Star reports that all the hacked sites were running on open source platforms and an Apache webserver. Although hacking is a criminal offence, the SA government can proceed with legal action only if the hacker is on SA soil. This means that the hackers will have to be identified and extradited from Chile and Iran. Full report in The Star

In other crime-related news, two British men have been found guilty of releasing the T-K worm and have been sentenced to a total of nine months in prison. Vnunet reports that Andrew Harvey was jailed for three months, while Jordan Bradley was jailed for six months. Appearing at Newcastle Crown Court both admitted conspiracy to cause unauthorised modification of computers with intent. Harvey and Bradley were arrested two years ago for releasing the worm between January 2002 and February 2003. They were picked up after a joint operation between the FBI and the UK\'s National High Tech Crime Unit. Full Vnunet report

And in Singapore, a court has sentenced two ethnic Chinese to prison for posting racist remarks about ethnic Malays on the Internet, in what is considered a landmark case underscoring the government\'s attempts to crack down on racial intolerance and regulate online expression. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Benjamin Koh Song Huat was jailed for one month while Nicholas Lim Yew was sentenced to a nominal prison term of one day and fined the maximum $S 5000 for racist comments against the minority Malay community. Lim and Koh stood in the docks with their heads bowed as they pleaded guilty to charges of committing acts \'which had seditious tendencies to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races and classes.\' Singapore is an oasis of calm in a region where ethnic tensions sometimes explode into violence, particularly in Indonesia. Full Sydney Morning Herald report