HSBC's UK Internet site and three other international sites have been broken into as part of an ongoing hacking campaign in support of the fuel protest, according to a report on vnunet. HSBC has issued a statement saying no customer data was accessed during the attack.
Four of the bank's Web sites were defaced, states the report, including its UK Internet banking site, and sites in Greece and Spain.
Herbless, the hacker who carried out the attack, told vnunet.com that he had not viewed or tried to view customer data. "I didn't access customer data. I didn't undertake any research into whether or not I could have access said data," Herbless said in an email to vnunet.com.
The hack included a statement in support of the fuel protestors and a photograph of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair with a speech bubble saying: "Listen to Herbless. He talks sense."
The hacker has attacked hundreds of other sites during an ongoing campaign, states vnunet, exploiting common failures in the configuration of SQL server to breach security.