Attackers compromised a system that hosted thousands of "parked" domains that had been registered through Network Solutions and were still under construction, according to a Verisign representative.

Web surfers who typed in the address of any of the affected domains were sent to a black page which featured an image of a mutilated rag doll and the words, "Did Web Pirates domain your domain?"

The system, which was running Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) on Windows 2000, was operated by Atlanta-based hosting firm Interland under an outsourcing agreement, according to Verisign spokesperson Pat Burns.

"At no time were there any issues with Verisign's domain name service," said Burns.

Interland officials said the problem was identified and corrected later Tuesday, and the company is working with law enforcement to investigate the incident.

In an online interview Tuesday, a member of Web Pirates, a Brazilian Web defacement group, said he only learned of the hacking incident after receiving numerous angry e-mails from victims.

According to the member, who uses the nickname Splash and whose ICQ profile said he is 16, he was not aware that anyone from the group had defaced the Interland server.