By

Chris Jackson

Arizona Summer Wildcat

June 23, 1999

Arizona Summer Wildcat

An unknown hacker broke into the UA's w3 web server this weekend, a Center for Computing and Information Technology official said.

Karen Warren, a support systems analyst principal who is responsible for UA Information, said the incident occurred "in the wee hours of Saturday morning."

"Someone had sniffed a password into the w3 system from another system and used it to gain access," she said. "They installed some tools so they gained super user access. They then used it to find another sniffer to access other systems through ours."

CCIT took action, taking the w3 server off-line and repairing the hole used to gain access by reinstalling the software with additional security measures.

"None of our user data was affected as far as I know," Warren said. "That was not the person's intent as far as I know."

The w3 system was back up and working without problems Monday night, she said.