Small Texas Library Has Brush
with International Dispute
Unknown computer hackers attacked the Rockwall County (Tex.) Library’s Intranet May 4, leaving a profane “good morning” that greeted librarians when they logged on. The message did not appear on the library’s publicly accessible pages, and the computers were not seriously damaged. Programmers from the library’s card-catalog automation company were able to repair the graffiti in a matter of hours.
The FBI’s National Infrastructure Protection Center had warned Web site hosts about the possibility of attacks from Chinese hackers in the wake of heightened international tensions following an April 1 aircraft collision that resulted in the forced landing of an American spy plane and the death of a Chinese pilot.
Library Director Kathy Melston said in the May 16 Dallas Morning News that the library’s automation vendor removed the graffiti from their Web site within hours and suggested that the library was targeted simply because the hackers knew it was somewhere in the United States. “They’re not malicious,” she said. “They haven’t hurt any files. . . . It’s strange, isn’t it?”
Posted May 21, 2001.
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