back to article Scotland Yard careers website defaced

Unknown hackers defaced the Metropolitan Police's careers website over the weekend. Digital graffiti on metpolicecareers.co.uk featured a picture of a greenish cuddly monster (vaguely resembling Sulley from Monsters Inc) and a message mocking Scotland Yard's anti-terrorism unit. The offending message has since been purged …

COMMENTS

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  1. Tom Kelsall
    Thumb Down

    Blue and white?!

    If that's the actual monster - it's pale and dark green... I see no blue at all. And that's the most interesting thing I could think of to say about this article except that if they're running on Windows 2000 they deserve everything they get - it's been out of Support for some time now!!

  2. KarlTh

    Support

    W2K is still in support. The default configuration is however notoriously insecure. I wonder if someone hasn't installed all the patches and run the security lockdown tool?

  3. Adolfo Galvan - Reg

    The offending creature

    It is from a US based show called Yo Gabba Gabba. No, I don't know what it means. The show and the previews are quite annoying.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    ha

    Ha trust me their IT Support is as bad as The IT Crowd! They have as much of a clue as a box of frogs! And web design?? from the Met ?? Shite. They don't use their resources or the people with the skills they bring in some numpty who plugs a network cable into a phone socket and wonders why it doesn't work!

    Paris cause she has more of a clue!!

  5. Stuart Brown

    Brobee

    Yup, the offending creature is Brobee.. Famed for his "Party in my tummy" antics that can be seen on YouTube

    Damn I'm glad I don't have kids, they would be warped watching that show.

  6. Dane Pack
    Thumb Up

    Yo Gabba Gabba

    Is stunning. Keep trying! Keep trying! Don't give up (don't stop!). Never give up (don't stop!).

    What better advice for the police could there be?

  7. Pete Bass
    Heart

    blindingly obvious comment

    Um, Government IT. ID card database. no2id.net

    If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear? Yeah right!

    Go on all you database techies, flame me....

  8. Sceptical Bastard

    Oi! You're nicked!

    'Allo, 'allo, 'allo. Wass all this 'ere, then? I 'ave reason to believe you are committing an offence of Aggravated Outdated Computing contrary to the Compulsory Use Of Vista Regulations 2008. I'll 'ave you know, sunshine, that using Windows 2000 is an arrestable offence. You're bang to rights, sonny Jim. Any lip from you an' you get to taste my Tazar!

  9. Steve
    Happy

    El reg should have provided this link for context

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9PqjMSNfkU

  10. Bob Hoskins
    Paris Hilton

    It's still vulnerable

    It LOOKS like an SQL Injection problem to me. It also still appears to be vulnerable.

    Paris because she knows the value of sanitizing database inputs.

  11. Paul

    Looks like...

    Some "l33t Noob scripd kiddies" by there spelling. They are probably about 12...

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Note to Paul..

    "Some 'l33t Noob scripd kiddies' by there spelling."

    When criticising a person's spelling, it is usually a good idea to check your own spelling first. You should have used 'their' not 'there'. So there.

    Mine's the one with the 'Idiot's Guide To Pedantry' in the pocket..

  13. David Eddleman

    "Noob Script Kiddies"?

    No, not noob script kiddies. More like a bunch of 4chan kiddies. The text makes it blindingly obvious.

  14. James Condron

    @Paul

    "Some "l33t Noob scripd kiddies" by there spelling. They are probably about 12..."

    What age does that make you? I learnt the their/there/they're difference at about 8... I also learnt how to write a 't' instead of a 'd' at perhaps an earlier age.

    Whatever age that makes you, then, watch out- the 12 year olds are probably a lot bigger and stronger. They also told me they wanted to see you in the playground after school

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    I had an interview there three months ago.

    I was told I was too qualified for the job. I'd loved to have done it, and still would, but they thought I'd get bored (on a short term maternity leave replacement.)

    If employing stupid people, just so they'll be challenged, is their usual hiring policy, it would be no wonder this kind of thing happens.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    @ David Eddleman

    Agreed. The use of "lulz" is a dead giveaway.

    Paris, because even she cries over 4chan

  17. J-Wick

    @David

    ... They did it for the lulz.

    Epic win?

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Is it illegal to hack their website?

    Just a thought, but why should it be illegal to hack a website? The hackers are doing them a big favour in demonstrating that their security is lacking. Especially when no damage was done (egos and the time spent in properly securing the site don't count as damage IMHO).

    The next thing is to hear from a "politician" (e.g. a shit-for-brains self-publicising twat who should be sent to Iraq for 6 months to gain our respec') about how this should be illegal. Ban it, burn it, all the same to them.

    Morally I just can't see anything wrong with having a go at such a site. In fact I think it's quite funny. Am I odd?

    AC just in case I am odd and should be burned at the stake for heresy.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Funny..

    But I hope whoever did it was damn clever and covered their tracks, there's lots of stairs between the datacenter and the interview suite.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    RE: Is it illegal to hack their website?

    10 years aggo I'd say that no, it should not be illegal.

    Today... I still say the same thing...

    But there are those that would equate hacking a system with out prior consent to shooting someone to show them that their shirt is not bulletproof and that they shouldn't wear them (calm down, I know that murder is not equal to hacking.... really... calm down...you do see the point, right?).

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Carefull now...

    Might have been a honeypot operation and those idiots who are no doubt now running bragging about what they did will soon be working for the police as in "You will tell us about any of your friend's activities that might interest us or you'll be spending some time in a cell with a jolly band of amateur proctologists."

    You never know, do you?

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Covering their tracks..

    Don't worry, I'm sure they went through SEVEN PROXIES.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    4chan is alive?

    I thought moot had fled to mexico a long time ago?

    Still, reflecting on the style degradation evident in El Reg reporting in the last two month or so, about half of the staff must be hanging around in that hive of scum and villany.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @anonymous

    "Just a thought, but why should it be illegal to hack a website? The hackers are doing them a big favour in demonstrating that their security is lacking."

    Would you feel differently is it were the website of the Australian Medicines Handbook which was defaced just as you appeared in a hospital Emergency ward? How confident would you be that a rarely-used drug listed as having "no major side effects" was actually so? How good would you feel during the minutes when the staff dug out the book and would you be hoping that the administrative staff had previously applied the online errata to the book, sometime within their well-known negative amount of time to in which see to the important after seeing to the urgent?

    Or how about a subtle defacing of the Building Code, say halving the required load for roof beams. Let's say that's discovered five years later when someone questions the entry "133t" in the Index. Would you feel comfortable in your new home?

    Sure, a lot of the web is used for entertainment, but some of it is used to inform real work. Sometimes that real work can have real world consequences if fed wrong or late information.

    Then there's simple annoyance: having to ring the university and wait hours rather than check a website in seconds to see if you got in. There are laws against other annoyances, so what makes hacking special? Taggers are equally demonstrating a hole in physical security, but building owners don't view tags as a favour.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    proxies

    Don't worry, whenever there are proxies involved it always ends up being someone in the same building!!

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    @Paul

    Haz u not seen teh LOLCats Bible Translation Project?

    As to the crime of running W2K, last year I was obliged to have some sort of brain scan thingie where one gets fitted with a sort of 3D wire frame model of a gimp mask, has one's bonce smeared with #3 grinding paste and then the faithful assistant Igor throws the switch. The PC at the other end of the wires was running W98...

    Paris, coz the above incident happened in France.

  27. Spleen

    Re: 17:01

    "Just a thought, but why should it be illegal to hack a website? The hackers are doing them a big favour in demonstrating that their security is lacking."

    In the same way as it should be legal to repeatedly stab someone in the face, in order to demonstrate that they need to improve their self-defence skills. If people didn't hack websites they wouldn't need security in the first place.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    It's a fair cop

    If only the cops were fair.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Lulz

    Is a corruption of LOL.

    Mudkipz, mudkipz, mudkipz.

    Also, Rules 1 + 2 etc etc etc

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