Brazilians hack 13 NASA Web sites

National Aeronautic and Space Administration

Brazilian antiwar protestors hacked into 13 Web sites operated by NASA's Ames Research Center yesterday.

Hackers from the Brazilian group DRWXR left a message protesting the war in Iraq on servers that included NASA's Computing, Information and Technology Program, the Advanced Supercomputing Division, the Information Power Grid, and the NASA Research and Education Network.

Along with the antiwar message, the cyberintruders claim to have posted a link to a video clip showing U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

The intrusions were confirmed by NASA spokesperson Brian Dunbar this morning Dunbar also stated that all 13 sites have been taken off-line.

NASA recently received a D- on information security grades released on Dec. 9 by Rep. Adam Putnam, (R-Fla). According to Putnam's grading scale, NASA is one of the few to receive a lower score in 2003 than in 2002, when the space agency received a D+.

The politically motivated hackers are also part of a group that recognizes Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont as the inventor of the airplane. They claim that Santos-Dumont achieved the first manned flight in a self-powered aircraft on Nov. 12, 1906, in Paris.