14 DAY TRIAL // The website of Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho has been defaced over the weekend by a self-confessed muslim hacker who posted anti-US messages on the home page.
For a few hours on Saturday visitors to Ronaldinho's website were greeted by a photo of the soccer superstar next to an image depicting Star Wars character Jar Jar Binks, the presence of which was meant to suggest a resemblance.
A picture of Osama bin Laden together with a message in Arabic were also displayed on the page.
A short message in English read: "Im muslin for ever, I love Oussama ben laden. I dont Stop The Hacking, F**k Obama F**k America."
While hacktivism and anti-American-themed defacements are quite common, the target seems somewhat inappropriate in this case since Ronaldinho is neither particularly known in the United States nor does soccer enjoy a lot of popularity there.
Therefore, it's safe to conclude that Ronaldinho's website doesn't get many US visitors or even people that care about the hacker's statement.
Since the website is made entirely in Flash the method of compromise is not immediately clear. It's likely the hacker gained access through other parts of the server and then modified the contents of the site.
"But there's a serious message here. Whether you're a big corporation, a small business or an individual, you need to protect your web presence or risk having hackers plant malware, spam pages or a mischievous message on your site," says Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.
"Fortunately it looks like the attack against Ronaldinho's website was more akin to electronic graffiti than an attempt to infect visiting computers with malware, but it still requires someone to spend time and effort cleaning up afterwards," he adds.
