The hackers had replaced the Observer's on-line lead stories with massages such as "Jesus loves you" and "We do this is the name of the Lord", but more critical, left files which might have done substantially more damage, said the Observer's senior systems administrator, Jonathan Kirkaldy.

"They tried to place a Trojan horse on the site," Kirkaldy said yesterday. "But it didn't cause any damage because of the security settings on our web server."

"The virus was to attack sensitive settings and send them back to an IP address, whose origin we traced back to Brazil," Kirkaldy added.

The Jamaican police's new cyber crime unit is investigating the incident, which the paper hopes will be assisted by the Brazilian service provider from where the message originated.

Browsers of the Observer website noticed the hacker's intrusion at about 10:15 pm and Kirkaldy was able to clear the cyber graffiti and remove the virus within 45 minutes.

"We immediately put in new settings and hardened the security around the servers -- standard procedure after such incidents," Kirkaldy said.

At the same time, David Allen, CEO of Info Exchange Ltd, also reported yesterday that its website was hacked Sunday night, and also traced the hacking to a provider in Brazil.

"Our preliminary investigations show that the unauthorised user is linked to a domain in Brazil. The unauthorized user was only able to deface the front pages of some of our websites, as our other security measures prevented the planting of worms or Trojans and other attacks on our servers. By approximately 8:00 am Monday, all affected sites were restored to normal operation and for our clients it is business as usual.

"... with the aid of our security logs and other security measures, evidence of the attack has been secured for further investigations by international authorities," Allen said in a press statement.

Meanwhile, TechJamaica.com, a local website that specialises in technology issues, yesterday reported that a number of other local companies were also hacked on Sunday.

They included:

* The Registrar of Companies
* Planning Institute of Jamaica
* Tourism Product Development Company
* Jamaica Information Service
* American Chamber of Commerce of Jamaica
* Jamaica Chamber of Commerce
* Airports Authority of Jamaica
* Bigga Soft Drinks
* Norman Manley International Airport
* UGI Group
* Moore's Business Forms

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20031007T010000-0500_49985_OBS_HACKING_OF_OBSERVER_WEBSITE_TRACED_TO_BRAZIL.asp