By Larry Marca What is Website Defacement Website

By: Larry Marca

What is Website Defacement? Website defacement is when a hacker compromises a web server and changes the data on the page. n Causes businesses money and customers n Occur constantly everyday n

Motives for Defacing a Website n Motives n Social n Most common type of hacker, acceptance, feeling of control n hack to gain peer Technical n Hacking in order to assist n Political n Break into systems in order to get opinions heard; strong political beliefs n Financial n Do it for individual gain

Reasons Why Your Website is Defaced Incorrect protection of web pages, folders and applications is more common than correct protection n Incorrect web site configuration may be more frequent than most people would like to image n

So How Does a Defacement Occur? n n The hacker uses some means to gain entrance to a web server He might overflow a buffer and insert some code which runs at a raised privilege to give him access He might guess or steal a password to an administrator or highly privileged account He may break a poorly secured application written in some language, placing some privileged program someplace on the server

How to Prevent Defacement Guard web server with a good firewall n Follow good security practices on your network n Keep your system up-to-patch n Keep in touch with diverse security newsgroups, newsletters and other information so you know what vulnerabilities exist n

Example of Website Defacement…………

n A hackers' group said it had added its logo on the Web site of a lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

References n n Anti. Online: Maximum Security for a connected world. 03 Nov. 2003 < http: //www. antionline. com/fightback/What_Is_A_Website_Defacement_And_What_Does_It_ Look_Like. php>. etest associates-Website Defacement and Security Testing. etest associates (UK) ltd. 03 Nov. 2003 <http: //www. etestassociates. com/pressroom/pr_website_defacement_artcl. htm> Hacker Notes-Web Site Defacement. 03 Nov. 2003 <http: //www. leave-me-alone. com/hackers_defacement. htm>. Wagner, James. Web Vandalism on the Rise. 22 Oct 2002. 03 Nov. 2003 <http: //www. internetnews. com/devnews/article. php/1485601>.