Mr Bean hacks Spanish EU open source web site

David M Williams
Wednesday, 06 January 2010 05:22

Opinion and Analysis

Only days after the Spanish government awarded a 12m Euro contract to maintain the content and security of its EU summit web site the site has been hacked by none other than the bumbling Mr Bean.

The Spanish government only just awarded a 12m Euro contract to Telefonica to maintain its Spanish Presidency of the European Union web site.

This was remarkable in itself because the site has been built on top of the open source OpenCMS content management system, proving that an awful lot of money can be made through supporting open source.

In what must surely be an embarrassment to Spain and Telefonica alike the site has already been defaced with none other than Rowan Atkinson’s bumbling character Mr Bean making an appearance.

Spain’s Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has long been remarked to resemble the slapstick character.

A recent political cartoon in the El Pais newspaper depicted Zapatero as Mr Bean above an article critical of his government’s handling of the economy.

Zapatero’s office confirmed a security breach affected the web site but added that no information at the site was affected, save for Mr Bean’s appearance with a cheery “Hi there!” greeting.