Malaysian hackers strike twice 
By Reuters
February 21, 1997, 1:15 p.m. PT 

                KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia--Malaysia's
                national telecommunications company said today
                that it has temporarily halted access to its home
                page after the site was hacked twice this week.

                Telekom Malaysia said that its TMnet home page
                was struck on Tuesday by a hacker who did not
                sabotage any data on the site but left a message on
                the page saying: "This site has been hacked!!!"

                On Thursday, the message, "This site has been
                hacked again!!!" was seen on the TMnet page,
                Telekom said.

                "At 11:09 a.m. [on Thursday], the TMnet home
                page was taken out from the server," a Telekom
                statement said. "Access to the Web server was
                shut down temporarily to allow investigation."

                The culprit in the first incident has been identified
                following an investigation, Telekom said. It did not
                name the person.

                The second hacker, however, "has used much
                more sophisticated methods to bypass the login
                procedure and exploit what is obviously a security
                vulnerability," the statement said.

                Telekom said it has yet to determine whether the
                same person was responsible for the second
                intrusion. It said it is still trying to trace the second
                hacker.

                Telekom's telco unit chief operating officer Abdul
                Rahim Daud said TMnet is looking very seriously
                at improving its system security, the national
                Bernama news agency reported.

                "The Internet and Web is a public domain and thus
                penetration is nothing new, but we are taking
                precautions and are learning as we go along,"
                Bernama quoted him as saying.

                TMnet is one of two ISPs in Malaysia. The first
                Internet provider was the Malaysian Institute of
                Microelectronics System's (Mimos) Jaring, which
                has been operating since 1992.

                Telekom's ordeal is not the first publicized case of
                hacking in Malaysia.

                Last January, Asia Connect, which provides
                Internet solutions, found itself $39,000 poorer
                after two hackers took up a challenge to break
                into its computer security system.

                The two Malaysians took only minutes to break
                into the company's $100,000 security system after
                it said it would offer $19,500 to anyone who could
                perform the feat.

                Story Copyright © 1996 Reuters Limited. All rights
                reserved.