Hmei7 Hacker Has a New Crush on Cars

Known for his attack on IBM in early 2011, Hmei7 has hit several Web sites belonging to car manufacturers and dealers this month. The list of hacked and defaced pages includes regional branches or distributors of brands such as Citroen, Fiat, Subaru, Volvo or Toyota.

Figure 1 – Toyota local Web site defacement

Figure 2 – Fiat500 local Web site hacked

The reason behind the attacks remains unknown, as the hacker didn’t mention anything on the defaced pages, except the week security of the compromised Web sites. Although one could argue that the attacks may be related to commercial espionage or cyber warfare, the list of victims points more toward different ends, such as conducting recon missions in the automotive industry and market or preliminary testing of some hacking tools.

Safe surfing everybody!

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