Surfers visiting the website of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the organisation that runs the domain name system, saw an unusual message in the title of their browser Wednesday.

This correspondent, using Internet Explorer 5.0, was greeted with the message that Icann had been owned by a hacker known as mista_dns, a reference to domain names. The main website appeared to be untouched, and the message was removed early Californian time.

Even though it is a non-profit making organisation, eyebrows will surely be raised at one of the internet's own administrative bodies being unable to prevent hackers carrying out unauthorised redesigns of its website.