Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6

Subject: RE: Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6
From: CapriUni
Date: 04 Jul 03 - 12:34 AM

Mudcat could end up a target.

:::Gulp:::

What, if anything, can we ordinary 'Catters do (who aren't actually privy to the technical side of things) do to protect our "home" here?

Subject: RE: Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Jul 03 - 12:47 AM

Max and his folks would have to see if they have any loopholes that someone with a malicious intent could reach, I guess. Those who designed the Mudcat pages are best equipped to understand the instructions to keep it safe.

I started this thread as a heads up for those folks who have their own web pages. Mine are part of the university system, so the guy who sent the memo is telling the library folks (where I work) to do the things he listed to try to prevent defacement of my pages and others. Any Mudcatters with web sites will have to look to their Internet Providers for some help, and look at how they set up their own pages, to keep from being altered by an outsider.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Jul 03 - 04:28 PM

I, for one, would like to get my hands on those who consider that sort of crap a 'sport' or 'game'. It is right up there with the kids who drove down my street one Halloween, breaking car windows.

Subject: RE: Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 04 Jul 03 - 05:19 PM

Maybe the easiest way would be to time a Mudcat outage for this Sunday.

Actually it's much much easier to imagine how some kids might find breaking windows on Halloween fun. Enraged neighbours shaking their fists and so forth. But how anyone could find fun in messing around with websites like this is rather hard to imagine.

Subject: RE: Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6
From: LadyJean
Date: 04 Jul 03 - 05:23 PM

Why don't they pick on spammers! Or better yet, pop ups! If they did that, I'd swear they were with me all weekend, and so would all my friends.

Subject: RE: Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 02:33 AM

Maybe Mudcat is under their radar and nothing will happen. I hope so! But not knowing what the hackers' criteria are for choosing pages to mess with, better safe than sorry. At least folks know about this event. Since it came from the university, I'm inclined to feel it's legitimate. They would have checked out the Urban Legend sites before warning everyone about this.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 02:46 AM

Hackers' Contest Site Vanishes

Subject: RE: Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 02:48 AM

Thanks!

Subject: RE: Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 01:30 PM

The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Here are articles in Google News. Perhaps a hoax, but now the news is out, who knows how many will act on it just to make a point?

We'll see what happens tomorrow.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 01:45 PM

If everything on Mudcat starts to behave strangely...
How will we know?
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6
From: GUEST, GEST
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 07:46 PM

Here is the Google cache of the Hacker's Contest homepage. The author is supposedly in Brazil, speaks Portugeuse, and apparently used an on-line translator tool to come up with some of the words in the text.

Subject: RE: Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 04:23 AM

Did anything actually happen then, or was it just a load of
tosh?

Subject: RE: Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 04:37 AM

I keep getting re-directed by messages which say a page doesn't exist but with a BLICKY which than takes you to where you should have gone. Is that the sort of thing they are supposed to have done,or is there a reason this should happen?

When I posted my previous message I arrived at a page with the following address :-
http://www.mudcat.org/ThreadNewMess-Sub.cfm
AND the body of the page looks like this :-

Document Moved

This document has moved here.

Is this just a blip - or is it a symptom that someone has been interfering with the 'Cat?

Subject: RE: Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 08:22 AM

The report in my local newspaper this morning is that scoring of the "contest" will be delayed. It seems some "hackers" kept the "crackers" scoring site(s) hacked and shut down most of the day on the 6th, so even the little snot-noses won't know what they did for a while.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 09:38 AM

Subject: RE: Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6
From: GUEST, GEST
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 10:45 AM

Looks like Google has taken down their cached page as well. It's Monday morning and we're all still here, eh? :-)

Subject: RE: Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 06:58 AM

They'd take one look at John-from-Hull's postings and think that someone's already hacked the site.

Subject: RE: Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Sep 03 - 09:44 AM

May that is what is happening each weekend?

Subject: RE: Tech: Alert! Web Defacement 'Challenge' July 6
From: michaelr
Date: 10 Sep 03 - 07:31 PM

This forum - where I hang out occasionally - was hacked at the end of July, probably by one of these jerks. It took the owners quite a while to get it going again.

Bill Maher took a very funny shot the other night at the dweeb who came up with the recent Microsoft Blaster worm. He said:

"OK, so you brought Microsoft to its knees. I'm guessing still no luck getting a girl in that position?!"

Cheers,
Michael