Kosovo Group Claims Hack of US Weather Service

WASHINGTON – The US National Weather Service computer network was hacked this week, with a group from Kosovo claiming credit and posting sensitive data, security experts said Friday.

Data released by the Kosovo Hackers Security group includes directory structures, sensitive files of the Web server and other data that could enable later access, according to Chrysostomos Daniel of the security firm Acunetix.

“The hacker group stated that the attack is a protest against the US policies that target Muslim countries,” Daniel said.

“Moreover, the attack was a payback for hacker attacks against nuclear plants in Muslim countries, according to a member of the hacking group who said, ‘They hack our nuclear plants using STUXNET and FLAME-like malwares, they are bombing us 27*7, we can’t sit silent — hack to payback them.”

Paul Roberts, writing on the Sophos Naked Security blog, said the leaked information includes a listing of administrative account names, which could open the hacked servers to subsequent “brute force attacks.”

“Little is known about the group claiming responsibility for the attack,” he said.

“However, they allege that the weather.gov hack was just one of many US government hacks the group had carried out and that more releases are pending.”

The weather service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.