In response to threats by a local hacker calling himself "Mr_Twig" to deface 1 053 local Web pages, security Web site security.za.net has taken up the task of warning the administrators of those sites to secure their servers.
Mr Twig's threat was left on the Business Intelligence User Group's Web site (www.glug.co.za), which he defaced on Wednesday. "If all my demands aren't met, these websites will be 0wned", Mr_Twig stated on the site, although he failed to mention his demands.
IT security and solutions consultant Justin Stanford, who runs security.za.net, tested the sites, and believes that Mr_Twig is capable of carrying out his threat. He responded by sending out an automated e-mail to common administrative addresses at the various domains, which he says has met with a good response.
"I reckon that I've had about a 10% response after one day," says Stanford.
Although the identity of Mr_Twig is still unknown, an investigation conducted by ITWeb indicates that he is most likely in his late teens and living in Cape Town. He is known in the hacking community as a "script kiddie" - a hacker who uses tools and exploits found by other hackers to carry out his attacks rather than create his own. Mr_Twig almost always attacks Microsoft NT4 and Windows 2000 servers running IIS (Internet Information Services - Microsoft's Web server) version 4 or 5.
Between December 2000 and March 2001 Mr_Twig has claimed responsibility for at least 22 attacks. In one attack against www.mcse.co.za, Mr_Twig demanded a job from Ernst and Young - a request that appeared in frequent subsequent attacks.
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