Defacement (vandalism)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In common usage, to deface something refers to the act of marking or removing the part of an object (especially images, be they on the page, in illustrative art or as sculpture) designed to hold the viewers attention. Example acts of defacement could include scoring a book cover with a blade, splashing paint over a painting in a gallery, smashing the nose of a sculpted bust. Iconoclasm led to the defacement of many religious artworks.
In computing, website defacement is usually the substitution of the original home page by a system cracker. The best-known defacement archive is http://www.zone-h.org which monitors web defacements but also web intrusion at any level (not only the homepage). Defacement is generally meant as a kind of electronic graffiti while recently it has become a means to spread messages from politically motivated "cyber protesters" or hacktivists.
Many religious and government sites are targeted by hackers to display their own political or religious beliefs, often while defacing the views and beliefs of others. Disturbing images and offensive phrases are displayed on various sites as the hackers attempt to get their image across. Many hackers will leave a signature to prove to their hacker friends that they were responsible for the defacement. Hackers do not only deface websites to display their views, many do it just for the thrill. For example, there are many online contests in which hackers are awarded points for defacing the largest number of web sites in a specified amount of time.
The sites of large corporations are targeted more often than any other sites on the Internet and corporations have to take measures to protect themselves from potentially damaging defacement. Web sites represent the image of a company and hackers will do their best to damage that image. Customers will lose faith in companies that cannot secure their own sites and will become wary of online transactions. After defacement, sites have to be shut down for repairs, sometimes for an extended period of time. There are many products available that can protect a site against the damaging effects of defacement and many corporations are now using these products to protect themselves. Sites are also regularly maintained to help eliminate the possibility of a defacement not being noticed for an extended period of time.
Web site defacement has become a serious problem that needs to be addressed by all organizations representing themselves on the Internet. As more and more business transactions are occurring online everyday, it will become of even greater importance in the future as organizations attempt to retain their good name.
