The U.S. Navy took one of its websites offline Tuesday and added new security controls to a second site after Internet surfers discovered they could access confidential Navy databases.

The exposed Navy files included material designed to support a machine for testing the electronics of weapon systems called the Consolidated Automated Support System. Web surfers were able to browse through hundreds of trouble tickets, dating back to 1989.

Also accessible by Internet users was a site operated by the Naval Supply Systems Command that enables Navy personnel to order commercial software or internally developed applications. One section of the database, known as QUADS, allowed visitors to pull up records on who registered to use the system and included their passwords.

A group of French security enthusiasts known as Kitetoa discovered the vulnerable sites, which were running IBM's Lotus Domino software. Kitetoa has reported similar security problems with Lotus software on other government and private websites.

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