Opera House Hacked

By Greg McNevin

June 12, 2007: Sydney’s famous sails have been compromised, but not by two guys, some terracotta paint and a peace message this time, but rather a piece of malware hidden in the main page of the icon’s website.

According to smh.com.au Rik Farrow, a security consultant in the US, discovered the malware while doing research work on Google’s new malicious software warning tool.

The new Google feature aims to give users advanced warning of malicious code on a website before they click through to it. Farrow was using the tool to find an example of marauding malware, and the Opera House website just happened to appear on the first page of his search.

The code is a Trojan that is likely to have been designed to capture banking information, effecting unpatched browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Claire Swaffield, the Opera House’s director of information systems, says the hack appears to have happened in late May, however, she claims there is no evidence that any of the sites monthly 300,000 visitors have had their details exposed.

“It's impossible for us to say exactly when that code went in,” Swaffield told smh.com.au’s Next. “The lesson for us is organisations of any size can be targeted by hackers and we need to have a really high level of vigilance”

The nefarious code has now been cleansed from the site, while security specialists Pure Hacking have been brought in to test its vulnerabilities.

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