The image of Linux mascot Tux used to deface the websites of a "small number" of Daily Internet Services customers.
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — According to several reports published over the weekend, websites belonging to customers of the UK-based web hosting provider Daily Internet Services (www.daily.co.uk) were compromised by hackers late last week, and defaced with images of the cartoon penguin mascot of the Linux operating system.
The image depicted three of the penguin, named Tux, in poses covering his eyes, ears and mouth, respectively, and accompanied by a message from Heart_Hunter of TH3_H4TTAB hacking crew, taking credit for the attack – a fairly tame defacement by hacking standards (seemingly free of any profanity or likewise offensive imagery), but nevertheless an unsettling indication to customers that all is not well at their host.
According to a report on news site Bit-Tech, the company described the attack as having impacted a “small number” of its customers.
Daily Internet Services posted a warning Thursday morning at 9:52 a.m., marking it “high severity,” according to a report appearing on the technology news site Softpedia.
“We have received reports this morning of a small number of customer websites having their index or start page replaced with an image and in some cases text as well,” said the statement.
A quick investigation identified the mass defacement as having targeted sites with the word “index” in their filenames. The company began restoring customer websites from backups at 10:45 a.m. on Thursday and was finished by 9:00 p.m. that evening.
According to Softpedia’s weekend report, Daily was still investigating the precise means of the hack, though it had some reason to believe that the PHP distribution the company was running may have played a part, and has since upgraded to a newer version.
The company said it is confident the defacement will not be repeated, and that servers had been “locked down,” though it warned some customers might experience slowdowns, as it had removed some database servers from its cluster in order to investigate further.
About Liam Eagle
Liam Eagle has worked as a contributor to the Web Host Industry Review since its inception in 2000, and as editor since 2003. He has been editor of the WHIR's print magazine since its launch. His daily involvement in the gathering and reporting of Web hosting news and his regular interaction with Web hosting leaders gives him an uncommonly broad appreciation of the issues and tends facing the business. Through his WHIR blog, Liam spots Web hosting trends and offers opinions on the industry-wide impacts of major developments and the motivation behind big announcements. Follow him on Twitter @liameagle
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