Pentagon Closes Its Web Sites to Repair Damage by Hacker

WASHINGTON —  The Pentagon shut most of its public access computer web sites over the weekend and was searching Monday for the culprit who tampered with an Air Force computer home page.

Scores of sites, which carry a range of nonclassified defense information, were closed early Sunday after officials found that the Air Force World Wide Web home page had been altered in a hacking attempt.

The sites include service-specific information, biographies of senior officers and, among other things, three separate sites on Persian Gulf War illness. As of Monday, officials said, only the Air Force home page had been altered.

The Defense Technical Information Center at Ft. Belvoir, Va., which manages 80 Defense Department web sites, took all of the servers off line after the damaged file was discovered.

Although an Air Force news release referred to the event as a “hacking attempt” and “attempted break-in,” Air Force Maj. Ron Lovas said investigators found that the hacker or hackers had successfully altered some home-page material.

Most of the web sites were expected back online by late Monday. The Pentagon’s premier web site, “DefenseLINK,” was accessible by midday.

The hacking incident did not appear to compromise any classified information since none is available on the Air Force web site. Lovas denied that the hacker had gained access to an internal Air Force electronic mail network.