Microsoft suffers further hack attack

Microsoft has suffered another breach in security just weeks after hackers infiltrated its systems and allegedly got their hands on the source code for Windows and Microsoft Office.

A hacker named Dimitri exploited a known security hole in the Microsoft Internet Information Server and uploaded a text file called Hack the Planet.

He claims to have been in a position to alter files on Microsoft's download site and add Trojan horses to its software. He also claims to have an encrypted file containing administrative user names and passwords, but said he will not decode it.

The software giant has been accused by the hacker of being "extremely sloppy" after failing to install its own security patches over the hole in the server. This comes hot on the heels of the previous infiltration by a mystery group who are believed to have infected and compromised Microsoft source code.

The Russian mafia has been under suspicion as the hack was traced to an email address in St Petersburg, but another theory is that a group of hackers simply wanted to embarrass the company by compromising the integrity of new software.

Microsoft admits that a hacker may have viewed some source code under development for a future product, but the company says that, based on all the evidence, it remains confident that no code has been modified or corrupted in any way.

See also:

Gates' security push lampooned

Website mock's initiative to make computing as reliable as utilities  08 Feb 2002

Trojans a-Goga in Microsoft Word

A Trojan horse posing as a rich text Word document is exploiting a Microsoft Word flaw that was discovered over a month ago.  15 Jun 2001

Microsoft hacked, once, twice, three times

Microsoft was left red faced yesterday and suffering from a severe case of 'do as I say and not as I do', when three of its international websites were defaced, quite possibly by hackers using the exploit the company warned about only two days ago.  05 May 2001

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