Updated Celebrity gossip website Holy Moly was hacked on Wednesday.

The defacement of the site included re-direction script that attempted to load malware onto the PCs of surfers by sending them to a maliciously-constructed website.

Credit for the attack, whose precise motives remain unclear, was claimed by a Turkish cracker going by the handle "Iskorpitx", an active defacer (http://www.zone-h.org/index.php?searchword=iSKORPiTX&option=com_search&Itemid=5) whose previous targets have included Microsoft and hosting firm GoDaddy (the target of a massive mass defacement by Iskorpitx).

The attack would have more sense if carried out by an irate celeb, the targets of Holy Moly's merciless gossip, but all appearances suggest this was just a routine hack.

The defacement has been purged from Holy Moly's website, which runs (http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://www.holymoly.co.uk) with Apache on Linux.

By Thursday morning, the team behind Holy Moly was in the process of rebuilding the its holymoly.co.uk site. But by Friday the site had been defaced by Iskorpitx once again. As before, visitors to Holy Moly were redirected to a site hosting malware. Users would be well advised to avoid visiting Holy Moly, temporarily, until its admins properly secure the site against further attack. ®

Related stories

Saudi hackers scalp MS UK (2 July 2007)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/07/02/ms_uk_defacement/
Hackers load malware onto Mercury music award site (7 June 2007)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/06/07/dreamhost_hack/
Hackers hijack UK.gov wiki (5 September 2006)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2006/09/05/defra_wiki_abuse/
Thousands hit by AT&T website hack (30 August 2006)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2006/08/30/atandt_website_hacked/
Mitnick gets hit by Pakistani crackers (22 August 2006)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2006/08/22/mitnick_hack_attack/
Morgan Stanley punters get refund over computer cock-up (21 August 2006)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2006/08/21/morgan_creditcard_mixup/
Politically motivated attacks soar in 2005 (27 February 2006)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2006/02/27/defacement_report_2005/
Islamist hackers attack Danish sites (9 February 2006)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2006/02/09/islamic_defacement_protests/
Web defacer sentenced, facing deportation (27 October 2005)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/10/27/secfocus_hacker_deport/
Hack attack linked to annular eclipse (4 October 2005)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/10/04/hacker_eclipse/
Political hackers deface Novell SUSE sites (3 October 2005)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/10/03/opensuse_hacked/
MS UK defaced in hacking attack (6 July 2005)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/07/06/msuk_hacked/
Underground showdown: defacers take on phishers (22 May 2005)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/05/22/defacers_take_on_phishers_in_underground_showdown/
Web attacks soar (27 April 2005)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/04/27/zone-h_defacement_survey/
Santy worm defaces thousands of sites (21 December 2004)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/21/santy_worm/
MS UK 0wn3d by hackers. Again (25 May 2004)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/25/ms_uk_defaced/