We Were Hacked
by Michael HoffmanWednesday, May 30th, 2007
This morning, for about 12 minutes, our website was taken over by a hacker. Instead of seeing our See3 logo, our videos and a description of the services to nonprofits we provide, we instead saw pictures of dead babies and the message “No Israel” “No Us” (and I assume they meant US).
Though I know this happens, and though I know this has more to do with our hosting provider’s security on shared web servers, I still feel violated.
The issue of hacking and “cyber war” has been in the news lately because of Estonia. The former Soviet republic removed a Soviet-era statue which made Russian nationals angry. In addition to the street protests, a serious set of attacks were directed against Estonian internet infrastructure. Estonia is quite advanced on the net and has a strong system of paperless e-government. And so an attack on their internet infrastructure is like an attack on a power plant or a bridge — it’s critical to daily life.
Let’s hope this is the first and last time this happens to us. It would be a good time to ask your hosting provider what they do to prevent hacking.
