Browsing the web, enjoying your time, nothing better to do. Casual search for something interesting to read, or maybe even a little research for a project or term paper. Click here, click there, link from site to site. Some mostly worthless, nothing more than links to other pages. Same old thing, different day.. until today. You typed in the URL for a web page that promised to have your info. Instead of computer pricing or biology, you found a cryptic message scrawled out claiming something, hell if you could tell what it was. You click on and forget about it.
Yes, that was a hacked web page. One of the favored things of crackers to boast their deeds. Proof that they alone control the universe and 'own' someone else's computers. Self reasoning and a shoddy moral vindication of a petty break-in to some no name computer. At least, that sums up almost 99% of current web defacement activities. Why?
Ok, lets buy that argument for now. The 'means' in our case is the hacking of a site and the 'ends' constitutes replacement of the existing web page with a new 'improved' page carrying the hacker's message. In today's digital world, it is the equivalent of spray painting a wall to have your message seen by passerby's. Stop here and think about all of the spray-paint graffiti you have seen in the last six months. How much can you remember? Odd isn't it. Some person took the time and effort to break the law in order to get their message out. Risk possible incarceration for words or ideas they felt were important, yet you can't remember any (or all) of it. Why?
Simple answer. Because there was no real message worth reading. After taking the power of free speech into their hands, after finding a place to stand on a soapbox, the person stood up only to mumble to a handful of faithful followers that already know the message. And boy, do they love to hear you talk! The rest of the passerby's continue on, unconcerned. They still don't know what you are trying to say. In fact, their opinion of you has gone down because you took the time to get a soapbox, stand on it, and face the public. You flaked out and didn't broadcast a meaningful message, therefore you are worth no time or thought. And there you go, a passing inattention in a fast moving world. Congrats.
More and more sites are being replaced by poorly designed pages, chock full of misspelled words forming sentences that defy all rules of grammar. Pages full of "elite speak"(2) that prove absolutely nothing, have no humor value, and only contribute to more eye strain. Pages containing poorly written rants that form incoherent thoughts, opinions or reasons as to why the page was altered in the first place. Basically, dull pages that show a complete lack of intelligence and no creativity whatsoever.
These kids have a chance to show the world that they are indeed intelligent well balanced *mature* net users, yet they throw every chance away it seems.
It seems most hackers want/need to justify their actions, be it to the admin of the site they broke into, the people reading the pages, their friends or often times themselves. Regardless of who they are trying to vindicate themselves to, the reasoning falls apart every time.
Justification #1: "I'm doing you a favor.. this could have been a malicious hacker that damaged your system!". Gee thanks for breaking in to tell me that. It didn't occur to you that the other 80 MILLION internet users did me a favor by not breaking in? Yet I should thank you? Although these kids rarely do damage, they cause the administrator extra grief in one form or another. Rather than normal work, they are forced into doing a full security audit of their system or reinstalling from scratch. Yes, maybe they should have been more concerned with security before this, but it is a rare site that can dedicate that kind of time or resource to staying up to date on the bleeding edge. That is the way the world works, so deal with it. Oh, and don't try to use that as a justification.
Justification #2: "Because we can!" Ok, so if I shoot you in the knee 'just because I can', does that teach you any real lesson? Amazingly enough, this is about the only justification that holds any water. If nothing else, it is the brutally honest truth that the person had nothing better to do, and had no well grounded reason for their actions. Instead of using this as a justification, why not think of a truly noble cause and follow it?
Justification #3: "I was pointing out security holes on your site!" Gee, thanks for the free security audit. Not. While you did indeed prove there was a hole, did you mail the administrator telling him HOW you broke in? How to fix it? Did you find more than one way into the system or just the one? If you did none of that, you weren't even close to performing a security audit. Oh, audits require permission too. Bad reason.
Justification #4: "Read my political reasons yo!" This one almost works for me, but like the others has serious shortcomings. If your true reason is to impress upon your readers of some political or moral agenda, did you really do it? A good job of it? Did you sit down and research your topic, finding resources and legitimate sources of information to leak to? Did you write up a political rant and place it on an appropriate system? Did you spell check your work to make sure that it flowed reasonably well? Doubtful. Putting up third grade level rants on www.unrelated.com mean just about nothing and truly fail as a justification. Try again.
I am not one to complain about a problem without offering some solution or input to offset the bitching. However, with this comes the chance people will blame me for encouraging hacking and continued defacement of web pages. I do NOT condone any such thing! I am practical and realize that nothing I say will stop people from doing it. That in mind, I am just trying to make the best out of an existing situation. That said... here are my top 10 suggestions for future hacked pages.
The good, the bad, and the impressive.
In the past, there have been pages (more like *elements* of pages) that have stood out as creative, amusing, or to the point. Hopefully by pointing out these examples you will begin to see what I have been attempting to convey.
Humor: While it probably wasn't the best site to hit, the recent hack of Greenpeace had a certain dark (and sick) sense of humor behind it.
Interesting: Another new person/group to hit the scene recently is 'Redemption'. Their hacks to date have simply contained (apparent) original poetry. A sign of creativity at last! You can read their work from hacks like DaytonTech, Town Green, and TC Edge.
Targeted: As suggested above, targeting specific domains in order to spread a specific message is a good thing. Examples of this can be found in Monica Lewinksy's Future Site, White Pride, and Ku Klux Klan.
Political: Probably the most memorable and well done hacks was that of the 'Human Rights China' site. When hacking for political agendas, hit the right site, with the right message, and present a well written argument. Does wonders. Don't believe me? Check out the www.humanrights-china.org hack.
Bad: Amnesty International found themselves victim of a web page defacement. Of all the sites on the net, why hit groups that are trying to do good already? Isn't that somewhat defeating?
Pathetic: The various hacks for a short period of time carried out by 'zyklon' of LoU. These hacks (many movie home pages) turned out to be one or two lines of broken English followed by a dedication to his girlfriend. *yawn* Kiddies with no creativity.
Pathetic: The recent mass hack by the 'Miss Piggy Hackclub', which caused over one hundred domains to display a single line: "The Miss Piggy Hackclub Strikes again muthafuqErz!$##$!@" *yawn* That is almost worth reading.
None! There hasn't been a truly impressive web page defacement to come along. None that took the cake in site, message, and design. :(
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Copyright Brian Martin
Disclaimer: I do not advocate web defacement. Don't do it. Go learn to program or be creative in better capacities.