Websites hit in massive web attack
Hundreds of thousands of websites appear to have been compromised by a massive cyber attack.
The hi-tech criminals used a well-known attack vector that exploits security loopholes on other sites to insert a link to their website.
Those visiting the criminals’ webpage were told that their machines were infected with many different viruses.
Early reports suggested that the attackers were hitting sites using Microsoft SQL Server 2003 and 2005 and it is thought that weaknesses in associated web application software are proving vulnerable.
Ongoing analysis of the attack reveals that the attackers managed to inject code to display links to 21 separate domains. The exact numbers of sites hit by the attack is hard to judge but a Google search for the attackers’ domains shows more than three million weblinks are displaying them.
Security experts say it is the most successful SQL injection attack ever seen.
