UN website hacked in ‘cyberprotest’
Virgil:
August 14th, 2007
Three hackers recently managed to change data on the United Nations webpage for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, plastering accusations that the USA and Israel were responsible for killing children. The UN website was forced to take the pages offline for repair.
Whilst other sections of the site were also altered, the main area of attack was a section reserved for statements made by the secretary general. These were wiped and replaced with the text:
“HACKED BY KEREM125 M0STED AND GSY THAT IS CYBERPROTEST HEY ŶSRAIL AND USA DONT KILL CHILDREN AND OTHER PEOPLE PEACE FOREVER NO WAR”.
“kerem125″, “m0sted” and “gsy” have previously attacked several other websites, describing themselves as “Turkish defacers”. Despite this piece of information they have not been caught.
I personally find the act highly immature and dishonourable. If they had something to say, there are many legal avenues of protest. However, regardless of the method, protest is about highlighting actions needed to change the world for the better, not just mindlessly accusing countries of killing children. The attack was unproductive at best, nothing but vandalism at worst. The only eyebrows they may have raised will be in surprise that the UN’s website didn’t have better defences.
The so-called cyberprotest has come to very little effect; the page has now been restored, and - no doubt due to the crassness of the alterations - no one is taking the event particularly seriously. I wonder whether the hackers were really out to protest or just prove to their buddies they could break in.