CornellSun.com Topic

hackers

Library Website Hacking Arouses Confusion for Site Visitors

Tom Ternquist  —  Apr 8, 2009

Visitors who searched for the term “Cornell University Library” on Google may have been surprised yesterday to find advertisements for anxiety pills rather than the familiar reference and collection lists.

The top search result read, “Order Xanax for next-day express delivery and free consultation by a U.S. licensed medical doctor.”

Further inspection revealed that the Human Ecology Historical Photographs site, hosted on the Cornell University Library's server, displayed a listing for an online drugstore selling Cialis, an erectile dysfunction medicine. Visitors were directed to a site that allowed them to purchase the medicine as well as read testimonials about the product’s “benefits.”

‘Bot’ Epidemic Infects Campus

Venus Wu  —  Oct 27, 2008

More than 1,000 Windows computers at Cornell fell victim to a widespread “bot” infection, the Cornell Information Technologies Security Office announced Friday evening through a University-wide e-mail alert.

A bot is a piece of malicious software, or “malware,” that can automatically perform various tasks that may range from downloading more malware to stealing passwords to attacking non-Cornell internet websites or servers.

None of the infected computers have shown observable change that can be seen by the user, according to Wyman Miles, manager of security engineering at the CIT security office. He explained that the lack of symptoms was probably a “deliberate attempt by the malware authors to conceal an infection for as long as possible.”

LHC Hacked

Sun Staff  —  Sep 17, 2008

A group of hackers identifying themselves as the 2600 succeeded in hacking into a computer network of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. CERN scientists said the network is used to analyze data from the new accelerator’s Compact Muon Detector.

The Large Hadron Collider, (LHC) began operation in early September, but will not begin smashing particles until late in the year. The particle collisions will recreate conditions the universe has not seen since a tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang.

The hacker team 2600 also identified themselves as the “Greek Security Team” and was competing against a rival hacker group to successfully tap the computer system of history’s largest physics experiment.

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