ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 7, 1997 TAG: 9703070040
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
The message threatened an electronic terrorist attack against "corporate America" within a month.
A NASA Internet web site was invaded by computer hackers who altered a picture of the space shuttle and threatened an electronic terrorist attack against corporate America, officials said Thursday.
Brian Dunbar, NASA's Internet services manager, said the hackers broke into the web site just before noon Wednesday and substituted an altered page for one routinely posted by NASA.
He said engineers at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., where the web server is located, quickly noticed the change and took the server off line. The altered page was available to web surfers for only about 30 minutes, Dunbar said.
The message from the hackers was a ``diatribe'' against commercial use of the Internet, said Dunbar. He said the message was a vague threat to carry out an electronic terrorist attack against ``corporate America'' within a month. It also called for the release from jail of some well-known hackers.
The warning did not specify individual targets or further elaborate on its threat.
Dunbar said the group identified itself as ``H4G1S'' at one point in the message and as ``HAGIS'' at another point.
The NASA web site was taken off line for the rest of Wednesday, but was up again on Thursday morning.
LENGTH: Short : 39 linesby CNB