Hackers Attack the Government

Hackers got their hands on two U.S. government Web sites last weekend, with at least one of the hackers posting a photo of Chinese pilot Wang Wei, who was killed when his plane collided with a U.S. spy plane in early April.

Web sites belonging to the U.S. Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services were defaced Saturday, though both sites were back to normal operations shortly thereafter.

Two Health and Human Services Web sites, Health.gov and Surgeongeneral.gov, were attacked. Health.gov was defaced to include the photo of Wang Wei, and the Surgeon General's site crashed outright, says Bill Hall, HHS spokesperson.

Though Hall declined to speculate on the motives or the individuals responsible for the hacks, he did say that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the matter and that neither site lost any data.

The Department of Labor's site was hacked by a seemingly pro-China group. A message left on the site, signed by the "Honker Union of China," said that the group "Maintains the reunification of the motherland! Guards the national sovereignty! Outside consistent resistance shame! Attack anti-Chinese arrogance!" Though the Department of Labor did not return repeated calls requesting comment, the Associated Press reported the details of the defacement and Attrition.org is hosting a mirror of the hacked site.

The defacements come only a few days after the U.S. National Infrastructure Protection Center issued a warning to U.S. government agencies and businesses saying that Chinese hackers might undertake a campaign of hacking in response to the death of Wang Wei.

According to the NIPC, the hacks might take place between April 30 and May 7, thus including May Day (May 1), Youth Day (May 4), and the anniversary of the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (May 7).