"We learnt that when you are looking for a company to host an ASP-based Web site running IIS it is important that the hosting company has security as a high priority.

"I initially noticed the homepage in the morning and our logs showed the defacement had not been there that long; as soon as it was bought to my attention we returned a back-up copy of the homepage. It was surprising, but I do not think it is part of a targeted attack."

The homepage has survived legitimate attacks in the past. According to Story, the South Australian Liberals were targeted by a domestic hacking group during the 1998 federal election, which saw the profiles of cabinet ministers defaced.

Since the attack, the hacker, who goes by the handle aLpTurkTegin, defaced nearly 20 Australian-owned private sector Web sites, including the message board of the Christian-oriented site connexion.net.au.