An Australian government Web site has been revealed as another victim of Sunday night's Web defacement spree by hacker group The Ghost Boys, with the URLs acn.gov.au and cultureandrecreation.gov.au hijacked to show anti-US messages.

The site, administered by Senator Richard Alston's Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA), was modified to read "DEFACED BY The Ghost Boys UssA sux!Boycott its products! NATO sux! greetz to DkD[|| admin: security is futile and you will be owned!".

Under normal circumstances, the Culture and Recreation Web site acts as a portal linking information and services for a range of arts and cultural organisations and boasts search facilities for more than 2500 Australian sites.

Canberran ISP WebOne hosts the victim site, and is investigating how it came to be hijacked. A spokesman for Communications Minister Senator Alston has confirmed the attack took place, but refused to speculate further.

"There was a momentary diversion to another site around 9am and it's being looked into. The department is awaiting a report and we can't comment any further until we know exactly what has happened," Alston's spokesman told Computerworld.

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