“Hackers” defaced the United Nations website early Sunday with messages accusing the U.S. and Israel of killing children. As of late afternoon, some sections, including the area devoted to Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, remained offline.The attack, spelled out by an Italian software developer on his blog and later reported by the BBC, replaced blurbs of recent speeches by Ban with the following text, which was attributed to a trio of would-be hackers:HACKED BY KEREM125 M0STED AND GSYTHAT IS CYBERPROTEST HEY YSRAIL AND USA DONT KILL CHILDREN AND OTHER PEOPLEPEACE FOR EVER NO WARThe section of the U.N.’s site dedicated to Ban was still offline as of 5 p.m. Eastern time Sunday. It sported a message reading: “This site will be temporarily unavailable due to scheduled maintenance.”Giorgio Maone, a software developer from Palermo, Italy, noted the incident time line and posted several screenshots of the defacement on his blog. Maone pegged the attack as a SQL injection exploit, which let the attackers add their own HTML code to the site. SQL injection attacks are a common tactic by defacers and have been used against numerous government and commercial sites worldwide. In June, Microsoft’s U.K. website was defaced by a SQL injection.“There’s a technical reason for the missing apostrophe [in DON’T], though, because messing with this very character (’) is part of the technique apparently used by the attackers,” said Maone in his blog post Sunday. “The [U.N.’s] site is vulnerable to [a SQL injection] attack…. This is a very well known kind of vulnerability, fairly easy to avoid and very surprising to find in such a high-profile site.“Moreover, the hole seems not to be patched yet, thus the site could be defaced again at will,” Maone added.In the past, “Kerem125,” “m0sted” and “gsy” are names that have been used by would-be hackers claiming to be from Turkey, said the BBC. An Australian insurance company, for example, had its site defaced in late July by a group that included kerem125. The U.N. could not be reached Sunday for comment.While defacing websites is common, large-scale attacks have been rare. Last year, however, nearly 1,000 Danish sites were defaced by Islamic attackers who protested controversial cartoons that featured the Prophet Mohammed. And in 2001, a monthlong defacement dustup raged between Chinese and U.S. entities after a U.S. spy plane was forced down by Chinese fighters. — Gregg Keizer, Computerworld (US online) Related content feature Top cybersecurity M&A deals for 2023 Fears of recession, rising interest rates, mass tech layoffs, and conservative spending trends are likely to make dealmakers cautious, but an ever-increasing need to defend against bigger and faster attacks will likely keep M&A activity steady in By CSO Staff Sep 22, 2023 24 mins Mergers and Acquisitions Mergers and Acquisitions Mergers and Acquisitions brandpost Unmasking ransomware threat clusters: Why it matters to defenders Similar patterns of behavior among ransomware treat groups can help security teams better understand and prepare for attacks By Joan Goodchild Sep 21, 2023 3 mins Cybercrime news analysis China’s offensive cyber operations support “soft power” agenda in Africa Researchers track Chinese cyber espionage intrusions targeting African industrial sectors. By Michael Hill Sep 21, 2023 5 mins Advanced Persistent Threats Cyberattacks Critical Infrastructure brandpost Proactive OT security requires visibility + prevention You cannot protect your operation by simply watching and waiting. It is essential to have a defense-in-depth approach. By Austen Byers Sep 21, 2023 4 mins Security Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe