Hackers Try to Cause Seizures on Epilepsy Website
June 13, 2008 by Antivirus Ware.com - Download Norton Antivirus software instantly!Generally when a hacker attacks a computer or website it is for personal gain or to be a nuisance. However, recently hackers motivated by ill intent took over an epilepsy website in an attempt to cause actual physical harm to the website’s visitors. The hackers took over the Epilepsy Foundation’s website and put hundreds of rapidly flashing pictures and links to more rapidly flashing pictures in an attempt to trigger seizures for people visiting the site.
Visitors of the site during the attack experienced migraines and non-seizure reactions when they viewed the images. This happens because certain individuals have photosensitive epilepsy and they have seizures when they are exposed to flicking images.
Hackers were able to attack the site by exploiting a weak spot in the publishing software for the foundation. The hackers quickly made multiple posts to the website’s support forum in an attempt to overwhelm it. The posts that they placed contained the pictures and others contained links to more pictures disguised as help resources.
The attack brings to question the freedom that many of these online forums give their visitors to post things at their liberty. For their part, the Epilepsy Foundation has not banned users from posting animated images or from posting direct links to other sites. Additionally, they have followed suit with many other forums and employed around the clock moderating.
