HOME: TECH: WIRE STORY Australian Treasury Upgrades Website After Hacking 12:44 a.m. ET (544 GMT) March 21, 2000

CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters)  Australia's Department of Treasury has tightened access to its Web site after a break-in by a group of Brazilians hackers known as Insanity Zine Corp.

Head of the Treasury Information Unit, Geoff de la Motte, said the hackers broke into the Web site at the weekend, leaving a message saying the group had been there and was "interested on change our country to a better country.''

No other changes were made.

"There was an intrusion but no damage and no access to any confidential or highly protected information,'' de la Motte told Reuters.

"They didn't get through our gateway. We have a firewall facility to stop that sort of thing happening.''

He said the Treasury closed down the Web site as soon as the intrusion was detected and, on the advice of Microsoft (MSFT.O), installed an upgraded patch which closed the possible access point.

De la Motte said the Brazilian group also claimed to have hacked into about a dozen other Web sites internationally but the Treasury site was the first it had defaced.

http://www.foxnews.com/vtech/0321/t_rt_0321_2.sml

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 21, 2000