Cyber-intruders continue assault on federal sites

Computer attackers are continuing to hit federal Web sites, with the US national storm prediction center among the latest victims. The center_s director said Tuesday_s attack prevented emergency management officials nationwide from using the Web site to check forecasts for thunderstorms and tornadoes. The intrusion followed weekend assaults that defaced the U.S. Army_s home page. Administrators were working to bring the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration_s Internet site for its Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., back into service later Tuesday, said director Joe Schaefer. The attack on the Army site was blamed on a group at the center of an FBI investigation into computer attacks. The latest intrusion by Global Hell comes amid a continuing flurry of other attacks on sites operated by NASA, the Education Department and other federal agencies. Administrators for the Army site believe that the www4.army.mil site was altered sometime between 8 p.m. Sunday and 5 a.m. ET Monday, Maj. Global Hell, or gH, has been linked to a series of attacks on government Web sites, including the Internet home page of the White House, and last month gH members said they were targeted by a series of FBI raids in Washington state, Texas, California and other areas of the country. Those raids set off a wave of protest attacks on federal Internet sites, with the FBI and the U.S. Senate among the most prominent targets. The latest victims include NASA, which still had some Web pages out of service Tuesday; the Education Department, which sported an altered Web page for a time on Friday; the Agriculture Department_s Food and Nutrition Service; and several U.S. Navy facilities. The altered Army page promised that more intrusions, or "cracks," would be forthcoming from gH. It also seemed to assert that rumors of gH_s demise were greatly exaggerated.