Memorial website hacked

Sep 20, 2007 13:16 GMT  ·  By

Hackers attack websites everyday, even if it's not in the news. As studies show it, hackers are after financial profits most of the time. You rarely see a "good old fashioned hack" when the site is down and a message pops up, so that's why I decided to write about this hacker's deeds. Now, this guy was motivated and not only was he a nationalist, but also, he was pretty good at history.

The story is about a Turkish hacker that attacked an American website. The site was a memorial page dedicated to the Vietnam veterans (thewall-usa). Sure, this hack insulted some, but fortunately, the site was put quickly back online, in its normal form soon after the disclosure of the attack. So, what this guy actually did was to take down a site feature, probably the most important one too - the search function. It was being used to accurately track down any people that fought in Vietnam. But that wasn't the only thing.

If one searched for casualties by date, then he would get redirected to an all-red page adorned with the symbol from the Turkish flag, a short video, and messages in Turkish and English, as the Washington Post informs us. I didn't get to see the video or view the messages myself, as by the time I found out about it, the site had already been cleared up, but from the same source I found out that the English messages attacked Kurds, the United States, Israel and Armenia. Also, the Turkish message read "Is there any equal or likeness to our martyrs at Gallipoli?" This is where I got the idea that this guy knew a lot of history - the battle of Gallipoli was a huge one, in which the Turks lost more than 250.000 men. Here's a link if you want to read more about it.