Confused Brazilian hackers tell NASA: "Stop spying on us"

The online activists reportedly confused the space agency with the National Security Agency

Published September 19, 2013 5:48PM (EDT)

    (Shutterstock)
(Shutterstock)

Acronyms can be muddling, especially across language. And the mistake a group of Brazilian hackers reportedly made is an understandable one: Aiming at the NSA, the hackers attacked NASA's website and left the message, "stop spying on us" on the home page. Perhaps the aim had been a conspiracy-theory fueled attack on spy satellites, more than likely, however, the hackers had wanted to target the well-documented and sprawling NSA spycraft.

The U.K.'s Telegraph newspaper reported:

A NASA spokesman confirmed that a Brazilian hacker group last week posted a political message on a number of NASA websites.
"At no point were any of the agency's primary websites, missions or classified systems compromised," said NASA spokesman Allard Beutel.


By Natasha Lennard

Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com.

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Brazil Edward Snowden Hackers Nasa Nsa Surveillance