, Newsbytes 2001-09-17
Would-be cyber avengers accidently hit victim company.
After announcing plans to fight back against terrorism last week, the consortium of hacking groups, which calls itself the Dispatchers, vandalized on Sunday two Web sites operated by the Special Risks Terrorism Team, a unit of Aon Corporation, a Chicago-based risk management and insurance provider.
An attacker calling himself RaFa replaced the sites' home pages with a screed about the mission of the Dispatchers.
Aside from their Web addresses -- Terrorism.uk.com and Terrorismteam.uk.com -- it was not immediately apparent why the two sites were targeted for attack by the Dispatchers.
According to a message at Aon's main Web site, over 1,350 Aon employees worked in the World Trade Center Tower number two. In the message, CEO Patrick G. Ryan said approximately 200 Aon employees have not been accounted for.
RaFa, a former member of a defacement group known as World of Hell who recently joined a security group called FateLabs, was not immediately available for comment.
A mirror of the two defaced Aon-owned sites was captured by Interrorem, a UK-based security consultancy.
RaFa also took credit today for defacing the home page of the Iranian Ministry of Interior. In place of the site's usual doorway content, the attacker posted a doctored photo that shows Osama bin Laden in flames with revolvers pointed at each temple.
Federal law enforcement officials have said Bin Laden is believed to be among those responsible for Tuesday's terrorist attacks.
According to a message left behind at the site by RaFa, the hacking group intends to target "every place that poses a possible threat to our safety and the safety of our friends and family all over the world. Our current targets are those of nations who support terrorism and groups of terrorism including but not limited to Israel, Palestine, Afghanistan etc."
A group called Medanhacking today replaced the home page of the Web site operated by Iran's Payame Noor University. The hackers posted a message that included the text, "from Medanhacking for US tragedy WTC and support to The dispatcher Team."
According to a directory of Iranian sites, Payame Noor University is the largest state university in Iran and has 186,000 students.
Both defaced Iranian sites were still viewable this afternoon.
A day after the attacks on the World Trade Center, RaFa sent Newsbytes an e-mail containing three photographs of what appeared to be individuals who had jumped from the burning building. The e-mail's subject line was "Swan Dives" and included an "emoticon" that indicated a frown. The photos apparently were originally from a Web site called Rotten.com.
A mirror of the defaced Iranian Ministry of Interior site is at
The defaced Payame Noor University page is mirrored here:
The two defaced Special Risks Terrorism Team pages are at
Aon Corporation is online at
Reported by Newsbytes, http://www.newsbytes.com .
