Hack the Planet (defaced-commentary)

[Kelley Walker <kwalker2@gte.net>]

[: hacktivism :]

Tonight the Attrition.org staff has mirrored one of the largest, most
systematic defacements of worldwide government servers on the Web. The
defacers, known as Pentaguard, took out various government Web sites from 3
countries - the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States.

While the message was the same on all Web sites targeted, we are intrigued
by the fact that this was not a mass defacement of a series of government
Web sites within an agency or even within a country - but 3 different
nations in different time zones all at the same time with all sites
remaining defaced for a period longer than 15 minutes.

Some of the US sites defaced were interesting due to the current issues
within the country - the Republican Caucus for the California Legislature
Web site was shutdown in the wake of a power crisis. The Alaskan Office for
the Department of Interior Web site was defaced as the country waits to
find out if Bush Nominee Gale Norton will be confirmed for Secretary of the
Interior (especially when one of the issues at the core of the
controversial appointment is her views on oil prospecting in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge.)
http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2001/01/19/republican.assembly.ca.gov/
http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2001/01/19/www.ak.doi.gov/
http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2001/01/19/www.cem.va.gov/

The UK defacements consisted of a series of small municipalities as well as
city and county governments - the most interesting being a Web site set up
by the UK government to disseminate information regarding Bovine Spongiform
Encephalopathy otherwise known as "Mad Cow Disease."
http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2001/01/19/www.swindon.gov.uk/

Australian targets were similar to those in the UK with one notable
exception - Pentaguard took down a legislative search application for the
entire Commonwealth of Australia, similar to the US Library of Congress'
Thomas archive.
http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2001/01/19/www.aims.gov.au/

Pentaguard is no stranger to government and military Web site defacements.
A breakout page containing 48 of their previous defacements
(http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/pentaguard.html) includes a
plethora of US government and military Web sites from the Army, Navy and
Air Force to the National Institute of Health, Department of Treasury, the
US Court system and both NASA and Department of Energy Web sites. The US
wasn't the only country  - they've  defaced sites of the governments of
China, Kuwait, Romania, Georgia, and even Vietnam.

gov/mil         group

  34                     pentaguard
  32                     hv2k
  28                     gforce pakistan
  25                     forpaxe
  21                     fuqrag

Pentaguard is the largest defacer of government and military Web sites
based on our mirror.



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