Fifty thousand exposed in ABC website hack

The personal details of almost 50,000 internet users have been exposed online after the ABC's main website was hacked.

A subdomain of abc.net.au was infiltrated early on Wednesday morning and the user names, email addresses, location, postcodes and hashed passwords of people who'd made comments on the site were posted on the internet.

"Overnight the ABC was made aware that an ABC television program website was hacked," the corporation said via an emailed statement.

Dutch politician Geert Wilders. Photo: Reuters

"The website relates to the ABC television program Making Australia Happy, which aired in late 2010.

"At this stage, we are still investigating the details of the breach.

"However, we do know that it has exposed the name, user name and a hashed version of the password that audience members used to register on the program website.

"As soon as the ABC was made aware of this activity the site was shut down."

The ABC said the attack originated overseas.

The hacker claiming responsibility said it was in response to the ABC interviewing controversial Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders.

A Twitter user called Phr0zenMyst said: "ABC hacked for giving a platform to Geert Wilders to spread hatred #OpWilders - database leaked!"

Mr Wilders was interviewed by Lateline during his recent visit to Australia.

NSW resident Tim Gresham told News Limited he was horrified to learn his personal details had been exposed.

The details were published along with 49,561 other ABC website users' data, on a website linked to Anonymous.

"This hacker has probably got a lot of information about me, intimate information about me, having an idea of what that website asked me in terms of my relationships and personal life," Mr Gresham said.

"They're asking a lot of people some very intimate stuff on that website, so these hackers have got some fairly intimate information on a number of people if they've managed to hack that website. This is big."

Meanwhile, hackers from Malaysia were on Tuesday linked to defacing more than 30 Australian sites hosted by Melbourne company ServersInSeconds.com.au.