David Beckham's web site hacked as Posh gives birth

David Beckham had his official web site hacked and defaced with the picture of a dog on Sunday, in yet another example of the importance of effective web defences.

As Beckham's wife Victoria was giving birth to the couple's fourth child, daughter Harper Seven, the site was showing the bizarre picture of a dog attempting to eat a bowl of food displayed on a poster.

Alongside the strange image were the words: 'ScooterDAshooter = FAIL'.

The hack does not appear to have been designed to spread malware, but it is nonetheless part of a worrying trend, according to John Stock, senior security consultant at vulnerability management firm Outpost24.

"If this hacker had chosen to place malware on Beckham's site the implications could have been highly embarrassing, especially with the recent news of the birth of Harper Seven likely to lead to a spike in visitor numbers," he said.

"While David Beckham is clearly not responsible for the day-to-day security of his web site, whoever he outsources the job to should be facing some penalties for this own goal."

Other recent hacks have included the web sites of Amy Winehouse and Ronaldinho, while several high-profile Twitter accounts, including those of Fox News and PayPal UK, were also hacked into recently.

No malware was spread as a result of these hacks, but they demonstrate that the means to do so is there if those with the right intentions seek to expose the same security failings.