Nigerian government website falls at hands of Brazilian defacement

Here’s what the official website of the government of Nigeria normally looks like:

Nigerian government website

And here’s what it looks like today, with a title of “Fatal Error ownz you !!!!!”:

Defaced Nigerian government website

Fatal Error !
by Elemento_pcx & s4r4d0 ...
"Seja você mesmo mas não seja sempre o mesmo" ... G. o Pensador ...

The message in Portuguese translates as

"Be yourself but not always the same" ... G. The Thinker ...

Two email addresses are provided by the hackers if anyone needs any help (it’s uncertain whether you would contact them for help regarding the website defacement, or to have the profundity of the quote explained to you).

Of course, it’s perfectly possible that the email addresses listed belong to people who have no knowledge of the hack – but with the quote written in Portugeuse, it certainly wouldn’t be a surprise to see a Brazilian connection.

If you run a website make sure you are doing everything to keep it as secure as possible – for both your organisation’s sake, and that of your users. If you haven’t already done so, read this informative paper by SophosLabs, “Securing websites”, which covers some of the issues.