What Exactly Are Hacker
Wars?
Hacker wars are attempts to damage people or organizations
using cyberspace. There are several types of hacker war tactics.
In this Guide we will discuss some of the more common attacks.
Web Page Hacking
Lots of people ask me, "How do I hack a Web page?"
Alas, gentle reader, the first step in this process ought to
be physiologically impossible and unsuitable for description
in a family publication.
The typical Web page hack begins with getting write permission
to the hypertext files on the Web server that has been targeted.
Amazingly, some Web sites accidentally offer write permission
to anyone (world writable)! If so, all the hacker warrior need
do is create a bogus Web page, give it the same name as the desired
page on the Web site to be hit, and then transfer it via ftp.
Otherwise it is usually necessary to first break into the
Web server computer and gain root or administrative control.
Hacked web pages usually consist of dirty pictures and bad
language. I have hunted down many hacked Web sites. Wise political
analysis, witty repartee and trenchant satire have been absent
from every one I have ever seen -- with the single exception
of one hack in Indonesia by the East Timor freedom fighter group.
Perhaps because they risked their lives to have their say, they
made their hack count.
But maybe my standards are too high. Judge for yourself. Parental
discretion and antinausea medicine advised. Collections of hacked
Web pages may be found at http://www.skeeve.net/
http://www.2600.com/hacked_pages
However, even if someone's cause is good and their commentary
trenchant, messing up Web sites is a pitiful way to get across
a message. They are quickly fixed. One has to hack a really famous
Web site to make it into an archive.
If you believe in freedom enough to respect the integrity
of other people's Web sites, and are serious about making a political
statement on the Web, the legal and effective way is to get a
domain name that is so similar to the site you oppose that lots
of people will go there by accident. For example, http://clinton96.org
was hilarious, clean, effective, and legal. http://dole96.org
was also taken by parody makers. They are both down now. But
they were widely reported. Many political sites linked to them!
To get your web spoof domain name, go to http://internic.net.
(Carolyn's note: since writing this,
Network Solutions http://networksolutions.com has taken over registering US domain names.
The American Registry for Internet Numbers ARIN,
http://arin.net is a non-profit organization
established for the purpose of administration and registration
of Internet Protocol (IP) numbers for North America, South America,
the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa. Reseaux IP Europeens RIPE,
http://www.ripe.net handles registrations for Europe, Middle East,
and parts of Africa. The Asia Pacific Network Information Centre
APNIC, http://www.apnic.net handles the Asia Pacific region.)
You will save a lot of money by purchasing it directly
from them instead of through an intermediary. In fact, all you
need to do is promise to buy a domain name. If you get tired
of your parody Web site before you pay for it, people have told
me they have just given the name back to Internic and no one
demanded payment.
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You can get punched in the nose by a giant corporation warning:
If you get a parody domain name so you can put up a Web site
that makes fun of a big corporation, even though you are not
breaking the law, you may get sued. Even if you win the lawsuit,
you could spend a lot of money in self defense. But you may be
able to get lots of good publicity by alerting reporters to your
plight before taking down your Web site. So in the end, especially
if you get sued, you may make your views known to even more people
than if you had hacked their Web site.
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If you want to keep your Web site from being attacked, I recommend
using a company that does nothing but host Web pages. This makes
it easier to avoid being hacked. This is because the more services
an Internet service provider offers, the more vulnerabilities
it exposes. For example, my http://techbroker.com
is hosted by a Silicon Graphics box that does nothing but run
a Web server. My @techbroker.com email, by contrast, is hosted
on a machine that does nothing but host a POP (post office protocol)
server. For sending out email, I use yet another computer. (Carolyn's note: I keep on changing how I host
Techbroker.)
More on hacker wars--->>
