Gawker falls victim to hackers

Gawker website had been hacked over 24 hours recenlty. Here is a question how to hack a server.
They are as follows(the names may vary depending on the httpd server you're running):

• httpd.conf
  Contains all of the info to configure the httpd service.


• srm.conf
  Contains the info as to where scripts and documents reside.


• access.conf
  Defines the service features for all browsers.


• .htaccess
  1Limits access on a directory-by-directory basis

www.codinghorror.com/blog/gawker-hack-release-notes.html