Hundreds of Sites Breached by Competing Web Hackers

A battle among hackers erupted on the Internet on Sunday as some factions disrupted a loosely coordinated “contest” among other groups trying to vandalize thousands of Web sites around the world.

Unknown attackers for hours knocked offline an independent security Web site, zone-h.org, that was verifying reports of online vandalism and being used by hackers to tally points for the competition. U.S. government and private technology experts warned last week that such vandalism was likely.

By late Sunday afternoon, hackers claimed responsibility for vandalizing hundreds of mostly obscure Web sites, such as ones for Security Title Co. and the Heart of Montana Realty Services, both of Bozeman, Mont.

There were no reports of vandalism involving flagship Internet sites that most consumers would recognize, a testament to improved online security over the last decade inside large corporations, government agencies and organizations.

“We at least knew it was coming,” said Peter Allor of Internet Security Systems Inc., which distributed a warning Wednesday about the contest using an alert system for technology companies. “We took some efforts to harden our sites.”