What's the reaction when you see something unexpected? Woah!! OMG!! This was the exact reaction when the UK people found porn content on the UK's Department For Transport (DFT) government website on Thanksgiving day. When visiting dft.gov.uk, the official site displays crucial information topic-wise like, benefits, childcare and parenting, money and tax, visas and immigration, etc. Unfortunately, this time, the visitors got to witness facetious adult content.
Some sources have confirmed that the UK Department for Transport (DfT) website was filled with pornographic content before, particularly the UK DfT's charts.dft.gov.uk site. Generally, this platform shows key data on multiple services such as roadway accessibility, driving test appointments, public transport, etc. Albeit the site is not accessible anymore, earlier, the traffic gushed to this website in large numbers.
The main page of dft.gov.uk redirected to the EU Hauliers WordPress site. Instead of seeing the actual official page of EU Hauliers (eu-hauliers.dft.gov.uk), visitors glimpsed a secured WordPress login page along with a secured password box to enter the credentials. The interesting thing is that some pages on DfT, like the road haulage surveys page and driver standards agency page, were updated in November 2021 itself.
On one hand, we supposedly believe that some breacher confiscated the DfT website to trick the government, or make the public believe their portal is not hard to crack, even by a 10-year old kid with technical know-how. On the other hand, we surmise it's least probable that someone from the inside has done this work.
However, it's a matter of concern for the public, as their data is stored in the form of documents on the portal. Thanks to the advancement of technology, creating a carbon copy of the same website by mimicking pictures of the officials is not that hard as well. Unarguably, people and the ministers would easily believe thinking the dupe portal is authentic.
"A disused, dormant page of the Department for Transport's Gov.UK website has been used, no information or data has been lost or compromised. The website address has since been permanently deleted", said a DfT spokesperson to Bleeping Computer when asked about the fragility of the portal's infrastructure and security.
