(Image source from: The New York Times hacked)

Hours after Melbourne IT took the onus of allowing hackers to infiltrate into its security and bring down the operations of The New York Times, a message appeared on the Australian firm's blog: "Hacked By SEA," it read. "Your servers [sic] security is very weak."

The recent hack by the infamous hacker group SEA or Syrian Electronic Army raised concern on a troubling fact: “A company with a vital role in the functioning of the Internet had left its computer system seemingly wide open to hackers.”

As a registrar of domain names and one of the largest keepers of the Internet's phone book, Melbourne IT is a key player in the world of Internet.

However, on Tuesday, sneaked into its site and made changes to its phone book, cracking up The New York Times and other websites. The New York Times accused that the attack against Melbourne IT left its website unavailable to many visitors for several hours.

“The attack against Melbourne IT -- and the collateral damage it caused some the world's most popular news and social media outlets -- highlights a central problem companies face as they try to secure their networks in a complex Web ecosystem. Although businesses invest millions of dollars to fight off hackers, they must still rely on the security measures of various third parties like Melbourne IT to run their businesses online,” wrote the Huffington Post.

AW: Suchorita Dutta