A mysterious band of cyber pirates has hijacked a NSW Government sailing website, re-directing users to a page of threatening messages written in Turkish.
Sydney yachties navigating their web browsers to a popular sailing website this morning were met with strange messages from a hacking group called the "Hac'Kings".
The group took control of the government-run Sydney International Regatta Centre website, redirecting customers away from the homepage to a site filled with cryptic messages in Turkish.
A banner in bright red font across the top of the black site reads "hacked by the Hac'Kingz Crew".
A message on the homepage translated into English says that "each of you will feel fear", followed by what appears to be gloating by the hackers about their conquest.
A spokeswoman for the Sydney International Regatta Centre contacted by ninemsn this morning was completely unaware of the hack.
"We have no comment at the moment other than that we are investigating," the spokeswoman for the website said.
The hackers have left no clue as to why they hacked the site or what they intended to achieve.
A cyber crime specialist with the University of Canberra, associate professor Nigel Phair, said this group is not well known but demonstrated a high level of technical ability.
"Often people who hack into sites will just deface it, but when it redirects to other sites it's quite serious," he said.
It is unclear why this particular site was targeted but Mr Phair believes the hackers must have found a weakness in the site which was easy to exploit.
The breach stands as a warning for the New South Wales government to review its web security, he warned.
"It's quite serious being a government website," said Mr Phair.
"The government needs to fix up the security controls around the site and work out how access was gained — administrator access — and do a thorough analysis and investigation."
Web users are warned not to visit the website due to the threat of malicious software.
Based west of Sydney in Penrith, the Sydney International Regatta Centre is administered by NSW Office of Communities, Sport and Recreation.
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