Feds' Climate Change Website Hacked By Online Drug Seller

    The website of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) was repeatedly hacked on Monday and Tuesday this week by an online drug retailer.  A Tuesday Google search of the site, www.globalchange.gov, revealed dozens of pages hawking everything from Xanax to Levitra to Ambien. A partial list is shown in the screen grab below:

    Clicking on the links immediately redirected users to a website called "HealthLife", which bills itself as "the leader in delivering medications throughout the world".  The site appears to be registered in the United States:

    While the links were redirects, a cached page (no longer available) revealed that the Global Change site itself contained unauthorized pages as well, such as this one:

    By Tuesday afternoon, the hacking had apparently been discovered and the unauthorized pages were deleted.
    The U.S. Global Change Research Program identifies itself as dealing not only with climate change, but "land productivity, oceans or other water resources, atmospheric chemistry, [and] ecological systems":

The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is a Federal program that coordinates and integrates global change research across 13 government agencies to ensure that it most effectively and efficiently serves the Nation and the world. USGCRP was mandated by Congress in the Global Change Research Act of 1990, and has since made the world’s largest scientific investment in the areas of climate science and global change research.

    An email to the USGCRP requesting comment has not yet been returned.


Note: A version of this post first appeared at The Weekly Standard.