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by csmattryder 4976 days ago
I never understood publicly defacing a site like this, if you're technical enough to access a domain with a fair amount of traffic, why not inject some script that'll give the visitor a drive-by download, and go in for the long (and more profitable) game?

Then again, I'm calling these people technical, apparently it's a simpler game now with scripts that any regular Joe (or his 14-year old kid) can run.
3 comments
daeken 4976 days ago
> I never understood publicly defacing a site like this, if you're technical enough to access a domain with a fair amount of traffic, why not inject some script that'll give the visitor a drive-by download?

Because the point isn't to cause damage to the user in any way (usually), but rather to (some combination of) 1) show off your skills, 2) embarrass the site owners, 3) get a message out, 4) have bragging rights. It's generally a fairly non-destructive practice, just silly.

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hack_edu 4976 days ago
Its no simpler now than it used to be. People have been saying that (and citing the whole 14yo trope) since the 80's. It does require skill, even if you're just using scripts.

What would give them more technical credibility in you eyes? If they wrote the attack themselves? In C? In Assembly? We all automate the hell out of things and lean toward the highest level languages for server automation anyway, why demean them when everything is a 'simpler game now with scripts that any regular Joe can run.' Have you seen Chef or Puppet, Flask or Rails?

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evx 4976 days ago
If you think there's a difference between hacking website X with ready-made tools and writing the attack yourself etc... you are not thinking like a hacker.

A hacker doesn't care what the way is. He thinks about the goal, the end result.

If there's a ready-made script that can help or do it for him? Sure why not?

Having said that I agree that it does require skill and it is not as easy as downloading some random scripts and typing in a website and pressing the 'hack' button.

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DanBC 4976 days ago
They deface sites because that's the aim of the "game" they play - how many sites can that group deface vs this other group?

Tagging - an ugly pointless form of graffiti is popular for similar reasons. It's easy to do, and more tags == more credit among a small group of peers.

It's a good thing that people want to deface websites rather than hunker down and learn the long game. We'd be in real trouble if all the people doing minor stuff turned to major cyber[1] crime.

[1] "cyber" feels so old to me. Neuromancer was written in 1984.

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