The cyber-tag left on websites and web servers hacked by the Trippin Smurfs

Cyber-Graffiti Artists Tag NASA

Anti-war message hacked onto NASA web servers

9th February 2003

A member of a notorious group of cyber-graffiti hackers placed an anti-war message on nine web servers run by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Feb 2.

Diablow, one of a group of prolific hackers calling themselves the Trippin' Smurfs, hacked onto the nine web-servers at a time when visits to NASA's web-sites were running high following the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster the day before. Although NASA removed the message after discovering it early in the morning of Feb 2, it is likely that hundred's of thousands of people had already seen it.

No-one knows who the Trippin' Smurfs are or which country they come from but the three paragraphs placed on the NASA servers were written in grammatically erratic English. Despite this their message was clear: "...it seems that it is going to be a war, again and again! When is this going to stop? Why does US attack Iraq?... A lot of people is going to die! And all this for nothing... or maybe US tries to prove how good are they... and they have the finest technology!! I just want to remember the US senate about 11 september 2001! A lot of people died there but I believe this is an result of what USA did to Asia. (sic)"

The Tripping Smurfs are the cyber equivalent of graffiti-artists and always leave their sign whenever they hack into a website or server.