News Burst: Administrators at fault in SQL hack, says Microsoft

Graeme Wearden ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 21 Aug 2000 10:30 BST

A hacker, who targeted three local authorities and five government agency Web sites Monday, claims that a weakness in the SQL servers allowed him to take over the sites.

But Microsoft blames administrator error for these attacks on several UK government Internet sites last week.

A Microsoft spokesperson has explained that network administrators were at fault for not changing the default password when connected to the Internet. Microsoft advises that administrators switch to NT authentication mode when connected to a public network. If they do not then hackers could use the default password to gain administrator access.

Security experts believe that last week's pro-Napster hacks may have been achieved using the same method.

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