Police probe bid to hack into reunion website (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Police probe bid to hack into reunion website

POLICE in Wiltshire are investigating a series of bids to hack into a website for former military service personnel.

Detectives based at Wiltshire Police's high-tech crime unit have launched an inquiry after businessman Dominic Hayhoe traced a hacker attacking his website Forces Reunited, which he set up in 2001.

Officers executed a warrant in Chorley, Lancashire, on Thursday and a 29-year-old man was arrested. Computers were seized from the address and are being examined at police headquarters in Devizes.

Mr Hayhoe said he believes the hacker could have been after e-mail addresses for the 150,000 ex-servicemen and women signed-up to the service to trace and contact former colleagues.

Mr Hayhoe, 33, who runs the website from offices off Church Street, Trowbridge, said he was pleased his security systems had kept the hacker at bay.

"We became aware of one person trying to breach our security. They were coming back each time trying to get access to our web server," he said.

"We started monitoring it to find out what they were doing and how they were doing it.

"No real damage was done from our point of view as they could not get to what they wanted because our security was already high enough."

Mr Hayhoe said the hackers had spared no thought for his clients trying to trace old friends and colleagues they had not spoken to in years.

"They don't think about the end users. These guys are in their 50s and 60s and are trying to find people," he said.

"If hackers scare them off they are being denied the service of possibly being able to find old friends."