David Beckham’s website, davidbeckham.com, was hacked and defaced in time to coincide with the birth of his daughter, Harper Seven Beckham.
Beckham’s website, which usually shows football-related content, was hacked so that visitors were greeted with the image of a dog trying to eat a poster displaying an advert for dog food. A message read: "ScooterDAshooter = FAIL".
The hack wasn’t vicious and appears to be a stunt by a gaming geek – the name ScooterDAshooter appears on the profile of several gaming websites.
Although the hack wasn’t harmful, the fact that it happened was worrying in itself, according to security experts.
David and Victoria Beckham have baby girl, Harper Seven
Graham Cluely, of software firm Sophos, wrote on his blog: “If those who broke in had chosen to, they could probably have inserted malicious code into David Beckham's website to install malware onto visiting computers.”
John Stock, senior security consultant at vulnerability management specialist Outpost24 said: "This attack is part of a worrying trend in web attacks, as it is only a matter of time before criminals choose to use celebrity websites to distribute malware to unsuspecting visitors.
“If this hacker had chosen to place malware on Beckham's site, the implications could have been highly embarrassing, especially with the recent news of the birth of Harper Seven likely to lead to a spike in visitor numbers.”
Other celebrities, including Amy Winehouse and Ronaldhino, have had their websites hacked recently.
