UK government sites take Poizon

UK government websites have been the latest targets in a series of attacks by a hacking group known as PoizonB0x.

Over the last couple of days numerous .gov.uk sites have been defaced, including the web site of the e-envoy, Andrew Pinder.

Sites hit by the hackers include the e-envoy's site govtalk.gov.uk, Scottish archive site nas.gov.uk, and local government sites wiltshire.gov.uk, havant.gov.uk and walsall.co.uk.

All sites were running on Microsoft IIS and Windows NT. They all featured an identical defacement, which displayed a purple logo on a black background and the words 'owned by PoisonB0x'.

The government has launched an investigation into the attacks, an expected move given the e-envoy's policy of cracking down on the cyber-criminals that have so embarrassed Whitehall in the past.

Only last month at the first meeting of the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, Pinder said he would be "pressing hard on standards for security", adding that it was "important that government sites conform to reasonable standards so people feel that government is secure and cannot be brought down"

Much to its embarrassment, the e-envoy's office said the govtalk.gov.uk site did actually comply with security standards laid down by the Communications Electronics Security Group.