Hacker forces website closure
An English Schools Foundation school shut its website this week following the discovery that a hacker had posted 'unpleasant hidden messages' on a number of its web pages.
The discovery came after the South China Morning Post uncovered a concealed cryptic message written in Latin along the bottom of South Island School's homepage.
'The school comprehensively condemns the hacking as well as the language of and sentiments behind these very unsavoury messages, which make the incident more malicious than a silly prank,' said principal John Wray.
Looking like something from The Da Vinci Code, the message, which was written in white text on a white background and invisible unless highlighted, said: 'Puteus utique quoad EGO subsisto. Rex est non mortuus, Regnum est non profugus, caveo suus ultionis.' This translates roughly as: '[I am] a well as long as I survive. The king is not dead, the kingdom is not banished, beware of his vengeance.'
Mr Wray said he was unaware of the hidden message's existence and did not know what it referred to. 'I was very surprised to find it on the website. I don't know who put it there or for what purpose,' he said. 'It was a surprise to the person who manages the website as well.'
Within 10 minutes of the telephone conversation, the Post discovered the message had been removed. By Thursday morning, however, the site had been shut down entirely as it emerged the first message was only the tip of the iceberg.
Mr Wray said later in a statement: 'The South Island School website was recently the victim of an attack by an unknown hacker who posted unpleasant hidden messages on various sections of the school's website.' No one was available to comment on the nature of the other messages found. The site was back online yesterday afternoon.
'For the time being, our priority is to ensure that the website is cleaned up and security is strengthened to avoid further attacks,' Mr Wray said.
