Hackers Break Into 49 US House Sites, Blast Obama

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 29 Jan 2010

It seems that not everyone likes Barack Obama, the current president of the good old US of A. A total of 49 House of Representatives websites were recently broken into by unknown hackers who apparently belong to the Red Eye Crew – the sites belonged to both parties. After breaking into these sites, the hackers posted this insulting message, addressed to president Obama (who spoke from the House chamber on Wednesday night):

“F*** Obama! Red Eye CREW !!!!! O RESTO E HACKER !!! by HADES; m4V3RiCk; T4ph0d4 — FROM BRASIL.”

Chief Administrative Office’s spokesman, Jeff Ventura, said that 3rd party vendors managed the sites the hacker hit. Most lawmakers' Web sites are managed by House technicians; these sites were not affected by the attack. It would seem the attack was facilitated by the fact that the vendor was performing an update and for a brief moment let its guard down. Apparently that was enough for the hacker who seized he opportunity and broke into the 49 sites.

As you can imagine, this incident did not go down well. The House's chief administrative officer, Daniel Beard, received a letter from Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican leader John Boehner in which the tow demanded an “mmediate and comprehensive assessment of how hackers were able to deface the Web sites of nearly fifty House members and committees.” The two asked the 3rd party vendor who was hacked be assessed; they also asked the security standards of all House contractors be reviewed.

"We also request that you take immediate action to protect against breaches of the House firewalls and to ensure Web site security of all House offices," Pelosi and Boehner said.

The following offices and committees were hit by the attack:
  1. altmire.house.gov
  2. arcuri.house.gov
  3. bachus.house.gov
  4. baird.house.gov
  5. barrow.house.gov
  6. bilirakis.house.gov
  7. boccieri.house.gov
  8. bright.house.gov
  9. campbell.house.gov
  10. carnahan.house.gov
  11. carson.house.gov
  12. charliewilson.house.gov
  13. childers.house.gov
  14. coffman.house.gov
  15. dahlkemper.house.gov
  16. davis.house.gov
  17. doggett.house.gov
  18. driehaus.house.gov
  19. energycommerce.house.gov
  20. gonzalez.house.gov
  21. gop.cha.house.gov
  22. hersethsandlin.house.gov
  23. honda.house.gov
  24. hunter.house.gov
  25. joewilson.house.gov
  26. kirk.house.gov
  27. kosmas.house.gov
  28. larson.house.gov
  29. lipinski.house.gov
  30. lofgren.house.gov
  31. lujan.house.gov
  32. mccollum.house.gov
  33. mcnerney.house.gov
  34. mikepence.house.gov
  35. mitchell.house.gov
  36. mollohan.house.gov
  37. murphy.house.gov
  38. murtha.house.gov
  39. olver.house.gov
  40. quigley.house.gov
  41. republicans.financialservices.house.gov
  42. republicans.oversight.house.gov
  43. resourcescommittee.house.gov
  44. roe.house.gov
  45. schakowsky.house.gov
  46. shea-porter.house.gov
  47. teague.house.gov
  48. tierney.house.gov
  49. welch.house.gov



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