Another Microsoft Web site hacked

This time the software giant's US Web site may have become the victim of computer crackers

Just days after a number of international Microsoft Web sites were cracked and defaced by a group of Brazilian hackers, the same group has reportedly hit the software giant's US Web site.

According to Alldas.de, a German Web site that records Web page defacements, a Web server located within Microsoft's .com domain at streamer.microsoft.com was cracked and defaced in the early hours of Tuesday morning by a computer crackers calling themselves Prime Suspectz.

Just last Friday, the same group, which claims to be based in Brazil, vandalised three international Microsoft Web sites, Microsoft UK, Mexico and Saudi Arabia.

Alldas shows a mirror of the defaced page indicating that the group posted an angry outburst on the Microsoft server, criticising the company's security record. It begins, "Microsoft Owned! Where is the security?"

According to Alldas, the server was running Microsoft's own Web software, Internet Information Server (IIS) 5.0. The alleged break-in comes shortly after a major flaw in this application was discovered, potentially leaving countless Microsoft customers exposed to Web site crackers.

This morning, Microsoft representatives in the UK were unable to verify the break-in but said the company was investigating the situation. As of Tuesday the affected server was inaccessible through a Web browser.

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