The website of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) was repeatedly hacked on Monday and Tuesday this week by an online drug retailer. A Tuesday Google search of the site, www.globalchange.gov, revealed dozens of pages hawking everything from Xanax to Levitra to Ambien. A partial list is shown in the screen grab below:
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Clicking on the links immediately redirected users to a website called “HealthLife,” which bills itself as “the leader in delivering medications throughout the world.” The site appears to be registered in the United States:
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While the links were redirects, a cached page (no longer available) revealed that the Global Change site itself contained unauthorized pages as well, such as this one:
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By Tuesday afternoon, the hacking had apparently been discovered and the unauthorized pages were deleted.
The U.S. Global Change Research Program is a cooperative effort of a number of government agencies that identifies itself as dealing not only with climate change, but “land productivity, oceans or other water resources, atmospheric chemistry, [and] ecological systems”:
An email to the USGCRP requesting comment has not yet been returned.
