Mitnick was released from jail in 2000

One of the world's best-known computer hackers has suffered the indignity of having his own website hacked.

For the second time in as many weeks, online vandals have broken into the site of Kevin Mitnick's new security consulting company, Defensive Thinking.

The latest breach was by a hacker in Texas, who said he wanted to be hired as Mitnick's security officer.

"The consequence of the attack was insignificant to us, but could have been worse if the person had real malicious intent," said Mitnick in a posting on his site.

In the earlier breach, a hacker calling themselves Bugbear simply added a page to the website saying; "welcome back to freedom mr.kevin ;)".

In both instances, the hackers took advantage of a flaw in Microsoft's popular Internet Information Server to break into the web server.

Wake-up call

No customer information was released nor was in danger of being compromised Defensive Thinking statement

Mitnick has only recently appeared back online. He was barred from using the internet until his federal probation period ended on 20 January.

Mitnick won notoriety as a hacker during the late 80s and early 90s and his exploits regularly became front page news.

He was released from prison three years ago after serving a five-year sentence, accused of costing companies millions of dollars by stealing software and altering computer information.

The former hacker has no plans to get in touch with the FBI over the site break-ins as his company did not suffer any financial loss.

"No customer information was released nor was in danger of being compromised," said Mitnick's company in a statement.

But he said he has since installed all the latest software updates to prevent anyone from using the same way to break into his site.

"I suppose it was kind of a wake-up call," he said.