Hackers retaliate after NATO bombing

A group of Chinese hackers defaced the home pages of the departments of Energy and Interior this past weekend, apparently in retaliation for NATO's accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

The hackers claimed their motives were not political but were a response to the death of Chinese journalists resulting from NATO's attack. The messages were written in Chinese and English.

The hackers referred to the bombing as a "Nazi action" and urged NATO, and specifically the United States, to accept responsibility. "You have owed [sic] Chinese people a bloody debt which you must pay for," said a message on the DOE Web site on Sunday afternoon. "We won't stop attacking until the war stops!"

A spokesman for iDefense, an information clearinghouse on critical infrastructure protection, said the attack probably did little harm but characterized it as "a warning sign" to the government.

"It's just another sign that these types of things are easy to accomplish if you have a modem and a little technical knowledge," the spokesman said. "It's not too far removed from taking it to another more harmful level."