14 DAY TRIAL // Hacking attacks usually cause technical damage, meaning that attackers manage to break into the systems and steal or access certain information. Unfortunately, there are cases when such hack attacks prove to be really harming and people suffer because of them. Such an attack occurred at the Easter weekend when hackers assaulted the forum of the Epilepsy Foundation and posted links to quickly flashing images. For those of you who don't know, people who suffer of epilepsy are pretty vulnerable to such images so such a hack could have very serious consequences.
In fact, the representatives of the Epilepsy Foundation confirmed that some people who accessed the hacked forums "involuntarily froze" while others suffered seizures, as a result of viewing the photos.
"This was clearly an act of vandalism with the intent to harm people, and we shut the attack down immediately," said Eric R. Hargis, president and CEO of the Epilepsy Foundation. "We've established deterrents in the system to prevent similar incidences."
The foundation quickly took the forum offline and cleaned it in order to prevent future seizures and other consequences such a hack attack can cause. However, the Epilepsy Foundation is now calling for help, urging the authorities to provide better security solutions for some health organizations for which such technologies are more than "must have".
According to information provided by the Epilepsy Foundation, no less than three million Americans have been diagnosed with epilepsy and about three percent of them suffer from photosensitive epilepsy. This means that approximately 90,000 people who could visit the hacked website could experience a seizure when accessing the links. This is clearly an irresponsible act from hackers and, even if they usually attack a website to steal some sort of information or just because they want to prove they can do it, it's obvious they are not interested in their victims.