Portuguese hackers responded to a negative assessment of the country's ability to repay loans by defacing the website of credit reference agency Moody's.

The defacement restores the rating of the debt-crippled nation to the highest (A++) mark, while simultaneously attacking Moody's website security and business practices.

One message posted by the hackers on the site read: "Here at Moody's we are paid to say what our $ friends want. We are powerful. We sell some hunches and everyone believes them. It's the mood of the day.

"Yet, we have trivial security vulnerabilities on our website."

The defacement, which features an image of Afonso Henriques, the first Portuguese king, concludes with the message. "Afonso ranked your website as Z--. His sword will be shoved up your ass."

The defacement, removed from view at the time of writing, was captured by Reg reader Marcia and can be viewed in all its glory here.

Local reports of the hack can be found here.

The defacement comes a day after Moody's downgraded Portugal's sovereign-debt rating to junk status, a development criticised by local government officials and (less forcefully) by executives from the European Central Bank, the Wall Street Journal reports. Share prices of banks in Spain and Portugal slipped on news of the downgrade, which makes it more difficult for firms to secure loans at favourable interest rates. ®