Hackers expose Compuweb security flaw

Hackers have broken into Compuweb, a popular US Web hosting service, and redirected many of its customers' Web site visits.

Compuweb is one of the top 25 US Internet Service Providers and hosts around 800 Web sites across the country. The hacker group, based in US and the UK, managed to redirect users of these sites to 'hacking causes' covering anti-pornography and intellectual property rights interests.

The main purpose of the attack was to expose the vulnerability of Microsoft's Windows NT 4.0 operating system - which was running on Compuweb's servers - to external hacking.

The hacker group says it intends to apply a similar strategy other NT-based systems in the near future.

However, Tom Sholtz, security analyst at Meta Group, has defended the operating system, saying: "Its easy to point fingers at NT but it's not the only scapegoat." In fact, he said, NT is better than Unix when it comes to security controls. "It really comes down to the fact that no system is completely safe."

Sholtz believes no system will ever be 100 per cent secure from external hacking. As long as the system vendor can provide speedy recovery services and patches, then the customer can ask for no more, he said. It seems to be more a case that speed of cure is key, rather than prevention.

One UK member of the hacker group, calling himself Exstraid, claimed the attacks were not malicious but were more to do with exposing bad software.

Microsoft was unavailable to comment.