Hackers hit tech firm InControl - or was it Hackers In Contr
The Business Journal of Florida
reports that servers owned by Web
hosting company, InControl Online
were hit by hackers. CEO Bruce
Franklin said he battled hackers
in a hand to hand - byte to byte
confrontation.
Franklin categorizes the hacking
attack as "more than an annoyance
for us" because it cost the
company downtime to head off what
could have been a damaging event.
It's like your neighbor parking
his car on your lawn and thumbing
his nose at you."
Hackers hit tech firm
Eric Cravey for the Business Journal
The City of Jacksonville's computer servers were involved in a recent "cyber war" between Chinese and American hackers in light of the April American spy plane incident.
But an unrelated attack involved servers owned by Web hosting company, InControl Online. CEO Bruce Franklin said he battled hackers a week after the city's servers were hit.
Franklin categorizes the hacking attack as "more than an annoyance for us" because it cost the company downtime to head off what could have been a damaging event.
"Economically, it's costly," Franklin said. "It started on a Sunday and proceeded on to the next Monday afternoon. It probably cost me a couple thousand dollars. I literally saw the attack happen on that server and that cost money."
The Chinese hackers did not post any anti-American slogans or profanity on InControl Online's servers as they did to the city.
"They didn't really do any harm," Franklin said. "But the fact that they could actually place a file on a server is a real breach. It's like your neighbor parking his car on your lawn and thumbing his nose at you."
An investigation is still underway to identify the lead hacker in the server attacks.
"It's really not a wake-up call," said Wally Eaton, the city's computer security manager. "They did not damage any of our machines. It's hard to conceive how much of this is going on over the Internet."
Both Franklin and Eaton installed "patches" (repairing the damage with authorized software) to their security software to beef up overall security they already had.
"Everyone should be sensitive about security," Franklin said. "You can't predict how you're going to get hacked, so you try and stay ahead of it constantly."
The Web site http://www.attrition.org may be encouraging hacker exploits. The site, which is ran by a hacking coalition, lets hackers post events on the site.
