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Hacker Swaps Spanish Prime Minister For Mr. Bean
Doug Caverly
Staff Writer
2010-01-05
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The character known as Mr. Bean is famous for getting into awkward (and hilarious) situations, and yesterday, he showed up in an unusual place yet again. On a site dedicated to Spain's EU presidency, a photo of Mr. Bean seemed to replace one of Spain's elected leader.
 | | Hacker Swaps Spanish Prime Minister For Mr. Bean |  |
We should note that this development wasn't completely random; a resemblance between comic actor Rowan Atkinson, who plays Mr. Bean, and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has been documented before. This pair of photos illustrates the likeness.
But anyway, the substitution became wildly popular on an international level. And indeed, although the hack was a rather benign one (more on that in a minute), enough people tried to see the smiling Mr. Bean (and his simple message, "Hi there!") that the Spanish site soon crashed.
As for the more technical and potentially worrisome details behind the switch, it was executed through a cross-site scripting attack, and visitors weren't targeted by anything malicious.
All in all, the hack just served to expose a security problem and promote what may be the world's funniest man.
About the Author:
Doug is a staff writer for SecurityProNews, InternetFinancialNews, SearchNewz, and WebProNews.
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