Monash University CIO to review Web hosting

Monash University in Melbourne, Victoria, has flagged a possible review of its Web hosting arrangements following a recent hack which replaced its website's home page with an image of the Iranian flag.

Monash CIO, Dr. Ian Tebbett, told Computerworld Australia by email that the university was continuing to investigate the external security breach to the website, which occurred on Saturday.

"The matter was reported to the Australian Computer Emergency Response Team (AusCERT) shortly after the incident occurred," he said. "The investigation has identified the source but has yet to identity a specific motive for the breach.

"We are still determining whether any changes to web hosting practices will be recommended to university senior management."

In an earlier statement Tebbett said that Monash was undergoing internal investigation of the incident, including direct liaison with other institutions whose resources were used as part of the attack.

"We take the matter of security of all our IT resources very seriously and strive to balance the risks involved with the benefits gained from these resources," he said.

He also said that no university data was compromised and the effects were limited to the Iranian flag displayed on the website.

According to Tebbett, the university had experienced "very infrequent breaches" on its website over recent years.

The attack follows a similar on the University of Sydneyin January, in which users of the Eris Free IRC network (EFnet) claimed responsibility for hacking Web servers at the university, causing outages to the front page.

Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick

Follow CIO Australia on Twitter: @CIO_Australia

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