Hackers crack four Microsoft sites

Microsoft was left reeling this morning after hackers defaced not one, not two, but three of its corporate websites in just half an hour. Then, to add insult to injury a forth Microsoft site was compromised by the same hacker before being defaced again by another group this afternoon.

Prime Suspectz claimed responsibility for the four cracks which penetrated feeds.mobile.msn.com, redsand.rte.Microsoft.com, arulk.rte.Microsoft.com and webcfeedback.msn.com. All the exploits were achieved by using potentially devastating holes in Microsoft's beleaguered Internet Information Server (IIS) web server running on Windows NT and 2000.

The hacker slammed Microsoft's web server security in one of his defacements: "Prime Suspectz again! One, two, three in only 30 minutes. As we can see, this server IIS is very good!! Micro$oft, where i find secure products made by you? WHERE?"

Industry experts pointed out that today's security problems marked the latest chapter in a long history of issues with Microsoft's IIS. "We have to ask ourselves the question that if Microsoft cannot protect its products, then who can? If God was going to choose an internet server, then IIS would not be his first choice. It's now getting like a Carry on Movie, called Carry on hacking," Dr Simon Moores, chairman of user group the Microsoft Forums told vnunet.com.

"The choice of your internet server is crucial and Bill Gates in grave danger of seeing consumer and business confidence in ISS shattered," Moores added.

In a bizarre twist one of the compromised sites, webcfeedback.msn.com, was then defaced a second time. After Prime Suspectz' initial attack the site was brought down again by Silver Lords who used the owed server to promote their long-running protest against human rights violations in Kashmir.