Well…3D Science News recently ran an article on Harun Yahya and the Turkish censorship of Richard Dawkins' site, and what happens? Turkish hackers wipe out the news site (turn your speakers down if you visit — they've got it playing some obnoxious music now).
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More articles by PZ Myers can be found on Freethoughtblogs at the new Pharyngula!
3D Science News hacked!
Category: Weblogs
Posted on: December 8, 2008 10:02 AM, by PZ Myers
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Comments
Posted by: mr-zero | December 8, 2008 10:04 AM
Is nothing sacred!
Posted by: kingjoebob | December 8, 2008 10:12 AM
That music is perfect PZ. When used in your office it will clear students out rather quickly allowing you to get some well deserved rest. or if you like you can use it rather than the theme to jeopardy during tests.
:-)
Posted by: gma | December 8, 2008 10:14 AM
This is absolutely normal and consistent behavior.
Religions are based on the fundamental immorality: he lie that they are 100% certain that there is a god and the 100% certainty that THE god is their god.
All other immoral religious behavior is based on this.
While most religious people also have some GOOD morality, this is human morality derived from the golden rule, not from any supernatural being.
We should not be surprised that religious people do immoral acts.
Steven Weinberg said it best: "With our without religion, good people do good things and bad people do bad things but for good people to do bad things, that takes religion.
Posted by: Snark7 | December 8, 2008 10:17 AM
Whaddya expect? They are turks. And believers. Which means they are massively delusional about their importance and capabilities, as well as a self-agrandizing, whiny bunch of faithful morons.
Posted by: Aaron | December 8, 2008 10:22 AM
Hopefully 3dsciencenews.com will step up their account security this time. ;)
Posted by: CodeSculptor | December 8, 2008 10:30 AM
Those aren't hackers. Those are hijacking kiddies. Real hackers don't use FrontPage! I've seen more acumen demonstrated on Commodore 64 BBS's back in the last millenia!
Posted by: MaryM | December 8, 2008 10:37 AM
Well that looks like an old PHP vulnerability - maybe they should keep their servers patched. I don't have sympathy for stupid - sorry.
Posted by: Reed Miller | December 8, 2008 10:46 AM
The song is rather catchy.
Posted by: taenia | December 8, 2008 10:52 AM
Oh, I dunno. I personally think the ASCII art is a solid improvement over their awful header image.
In all seriousness, though, it really doesn't make sense to me (in both this and the sign-theft incident in Washington) how you can maintain a moral high ground by committing an obvious wrong.
Posted by: Dutch Delight | December 8, 2008 10:54 AM
I wouldn't draw any conclusions from this, it's called defacing and plenty of "hacker" groups who are looking for attention leave their mark this way.
It could very well be part of a mass defacing which is relatively easy now that lots of webhosters control their webservers in a centralized manner. In that case, these guys might not even care very much about the actual sites they are defacing, it's about the number of domains.
If they are really bored they might have made a guesstimate on the number of eyeballs that they are reaching, but thats stretching it already.
Posted by: Twin-Skies | December 8, 2008 10:59 AM
It's a little too early to tell if this is the work of a couple of overly zealous religious crackpots, imho.
Posted by: Michelle | December 8, 2008 11:02 AM
There again a proof that the people claiming tolerance are the most intolerant.
Posted by: Faouloki | December 8, 2008 11:04 AM
Firefox closes before I can see it, but from the brief glimpse I got it looks like the same hackers who did a couple of my sites mid-development and if it is, they just target sites with PHP vulnerabilities rather than going for anyone in particular.
Posted by: Kobra | December 8, 2008 11:08 AM
http://www.google.com/search?q="Hacked+By+ChagLar+%26+H.T.T"
Ahem.
Posted by: Twin-Skies | December 8, 2008 11:11 AM
@Faouloki
So does this mean it's really just the work of a couple of incredibly bored little schmucks who just happened to have stumbled into the 3Dscience site?
Posted by: Faouloki | December 8, 2008 11:13 AM
@Twin-Skies
More than likely, yes.
Posted by: Alex Besogonov | December 8, 2008 11:33 AM
Look at their HTML. It's horrible!
They don't even know about CSS and styles.
Posted by: jpf | December 8, 2008 11:48 AM
When your moral high ground is Heaven, you can afford to fall down a few clouds.
Posted by: Bachalon | December 8, 2008 11:48 AM
Yeah, that'll make your point. Dumbasses.
Posted by: AnonCoward23 | December 8, 2008 11:49 AM
I second CodeSculptor (#6). Moreover, real hackers would probably play some chiptune and not stupid rap. :P
Posted by: muttmutt | December 8, 2008 11:53 AM
Good for the hackers! Let this be a lesson to all of us that security on the Internet is not something to be dismissed lightly. While I don't agree with their position, as a hacker, I think it's perfectly acceptable to break this site if it's breakable. Shame on the site owners for having such weak security.
Posted by: Darth Wader | December 8, 2008 12:10 PM
Im gonna go break into my neighbor's house. Its his fault that I will, he is using a hollow core door instead of a solid oak or steel.
Posted by: Teleprompter | December 8, 2008 12:12 PM
I don't think it's acceptable to break over people's site if they're breakable. Would you steal money from a bank just because you can? Would it then be the bank's fault for having such weak security? The anonymity of the Internet does not excuse anyone from real world moral considerations. Honestly, if you're a hacker, you probably have too much time on your hands. Go find something more constructive to do that doesn't interfere with other people's rights of self-expression. Go read a book or something.
Posted by: Dale Husband | December 8, 2008 12:27 PM
Typical bigoted hypocrisy. Destroying knowledge and replacing it with dreck. Then again, you could say that about most popular music over the past several decades. At least the hackers could have played classical music instead of the rap/techno $#it!
Posted by: Grumpy Bob | December 8, 2008 12:30 PM
One of my websites got this treatment from some turkish script-kiddie the other week. I had not kept the CMS updated, and there turned out to have been a security exploit available. Didn't take too long to sort out. Could have been much worse, I think.
Grumpy Bob
Posted by: Kelreth | December 8, 2008 12:43 PM
Any one else amused by their knee jerk reaction? I mean we are defiantly going to take their backwards hypocritical ideas seriously now. "Respect us because we can hack your sites!" No we are just going to send the CIA after you or let them play with you, have fun!
Posted by: davem | December 8, 2008 1:03 PM
Hackers are no better than thieves. If you can't see why, then you'll probably not see why I shouldn't mug the old lady next door just because it amuses me, and because I can.
Posted by: guy fawkes | December 8, 2008 1:09 PM
We have to admit, the ASCII is rather nice, reminds me of the good ´ol days.
What kind of "hacker" would promote themselves? These are script kids for crying out loud.
Posted by: guy fawkes | December 8, 2008 1:26 PM
[b]Here is the guys mail address and information, the infamous and 'oh so skilled HaXXtor ChagLar'[/b]
CHagLar@sanalistihbarat.org
Birth: 1989-12-25
Look at that, a young boy, How suprising indeed considering his immature pranks. I would never have guessed.
http://www.sanalistihbarat.org
Dont know if his homepage or some sort of forum, its all in turish it seems.
Maybe we should mail the young boy, possible make his mail unusable? A couple of thousands of Evil pharyngula freaks spamming your mailbox cant be to fun.
Posted by: Kagehi | December 8, 2008 1:44 PM
Davem, I know for a fact that the people at 2600, The Hacker's quarterly, and pretty much all other sane hackers, would take on elook at muttmutt's comment and suggest he get a clue, before he instead got the jail time he deserved. Hacker means - wanting to know how things work, and much like urban explorers, spelunkers, or even some random idiot that might be dumb enough to gain illegal entry into someone's house to just take some pictures (the later case being illegal, and damn stupid), no hacker would go into some abandoned building to tag it, a cave to carve their initials on the ceiling, or someone's house to steal cookies or break all their plates, or some stupid shit. The people that do, in all cases, already have a proper name for themselves: criminals.
That said, relying on the fact that such a criminal will be either too stupid to notice an unlocked door, or too nice to use it, is shear idiocy, yet, even today, it is the #1 method of security relied on by MANY companies for internet security. Well... criminals are idiots, but even idiots can become **very good** at one thing, and being idiots, they will keep doing it, on the assumption that, if they didn't get caught the first 25 times, they won't be the next time either.
Posted by: Ygern | December 8, 2008 1:46 PM
muttmutt wrote:
"...I think it's perfectly acceptable to break this site if it's breakable. Shame on the site owners for having such weak security..."
And when next you see a car where the owner has accidently left his back window slightly ajar, I assume you will steal the car to teach him a lesson on vehicle security. The cops will no doubt be so impressed with your reasoning when they arrest you that I bet they let you go right away. In fact, they'll probably give you money too.
Posted by: guy fawkes | December 8, 2008 1:53 PM
Kagehi, and leaving a trail of breadcrums after himself may not improve his image either.
I remember when 2600 had some really good wargames.. But that was years and years ago, Don´t know if they still do it.
Posted by: Dutch Delight | December 8, 2008 1:55 PM
I wish people would stop making those old hat flawed analogies with real world crimes when discussing digital security.
Posted by: guy fawkes | December 8, 2008 2:02 PM
So you are saying that someone who virtually brakes into a bank account and steal all the money from a family of four leaving them to starve... Has not committed a 'real' crime?
But if they got mugged on the street, THEN its real... Makes alot of sense.
Posted by: C | December 8, 2008 2:05 PM
"Maybe we should mail the young boy, possible make his mail unusable? A couple of thousands of Evil pharyngula freaks spamming your mailbox cant be to fun."
It's a nationalistic pissing contest, nothing more. Don't bother.
Posted by: C | December 8, 2008 2:08 PM
"So you are saying that someone who virtually brakes into a bank account and steal all the money from a family of four leaving them to starve... Has not committed a 'real' crime?
But if they got mugged on the street, THEN its real... Makes alot of sense."
This isn't phishing, this is the digital equivalent of graffiti, with an annoyance and a cost attributed, but really though, it's an early teenager "armed" with a script that attacks unpatched exploits. I've had them take down a ~200 user webforum of mine. While it's maddeningly annoying, it's not traditional "theft".
Posted by: guy fawkes | December 8, 2008 2:09 PM
C, haha, True, Nationalists can screw themselves, I am a World Citizen.
Posted by: theinquisitor | December 8, 2008 2:10 PM
"I wish people would stop making those old hat flawed analogies with real world crimes when discussing digital security."
Why is it a flawed analogy? What's the significant difference between violating the security of a website, and the security of something in the "real world"? (the internet is real by the way, it's just made bits rather than bricks and glass and carpets)
Posted by: Darth Wader | December 8, 2008 2:11 PM
Young turk!
Its not a flawed analogy. How is breaking into someone's computer unique from breaking into any of their other property?
Posted by: theinquisitor | December 8, 2008 2:13 PM
"this is the digital equivalent of graffiti"
Given that some people may be earning money from the traffic to the website, isn't it a bit more like damaging the entrance to a shop or something like that? Not theft, but people are going to lose money. Is it okay to destroy income, but not to steal it?
Posted by: eric perkins | December 8, 2008 2:14 PM
that music is sweet.
Posted by: Glen Davidson | December 8, 2008 2:22 PM
This is more like revenge than censorship, since they can hardly wipe out free internet speech in the world.
I suppose many Muslims get a slight amount of credit for not claiming to be open, free, tolerant. At least they avoid the hypocrisy of the UD bigots. That's a very small credit against their (not all Muslims, but clearly a high percentage) massive intolerance for anything but a throwback to a horrible medieval culture.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/6mb592
Posted by: Doug M | December 8, 2008 2:24 PM
These sorts of things do cause damages. A few years ago around this time thousands of websites were defaced in this kind of incident. A local small business owner who was hit by the attack said he lost thousands of dollars in the day his website was down. If someone defaced a real building that caused them to stop operations for a day, would that be a real crime?
Stop making excuses for these little kiddies. Of course everyone should try to keep their websites as secure as possible, but not everyone can afford to have security gurus working for him (or even someone with a little bit of experience in web/security matters).
Posted by: Jimminy Christmas | December 8, 2008 2:48 PM
Bah! Everyone knows solid oak and steel can be easily exploited. If your neighbor was serious about security, his house would be completely invisible!Posted by: Paul Murray | December 8, 2008 3:19 PM
What, you mean like sending a great flood to kill all that liveth and breatheth on the face of the earth?Posted by: Blind Squirrel FCD | December 8, 2008 3:45 PM
The music just stopped.
Posted by: Greg Laden | December 8, 2008 4:09 PM
I was in touch with the authors of this site (I think it was first noticed over night by a commenter* on my site). But now the authors seem to have disappeared as well. Slave trade, probably.
Posted by: NSherrard | December 8, 2008 4:25 PM
"Its not a flawed analogy. How is breaking into someone's computer unique from breaking into any of their other property?"
It is a flawed analogy. First, it's not someone's "computer" that's being broken into. It's a website that has been hijacked. So, really, you see no difference between a website being hacked and a home being broken into? These feel equally violative to you? Sure, it sucks to be "hacked," but to compare it to bank-robbing and home-burgling is indeed a little hysterical, or at least hyperbolic.
Posted by: Banned from my own website | December 8, 2008 4:28 PM
Hi Greg,
We'll are still here. I'm too busy to deal with the problem and the admin is still not checking in.
Darn script kiddies. Couldn't they strike on a Saturday?
Posted by: NSherrard | December 8, 2008 4:43 PM
Hey Banned,
Just out of curiosity, do YOU feel as though you've been mugged, robbed, or had the door of your home smashed in and your personal things looted and stolen?
I particularly liked the indignancy of the poster who suggested that kids messing around with someone's website like this are the moral equivalent of old-lady-muggers. Get a grip folks.
Posted by: Banned from my own website | December 8, 2008 4:57 PM
I feel amused and annoyed. First, I'm sorry it was just a Turkish teenager without a life and not the wrath of a religious fundy. Second, annoyed that I'm going to waste some time on this. It's like a dog crapping on your lawn.
On the hand websites are property like small business everywhere and if the kid had been caught vandalizing it I think there are ought to be penalties. Otherwise the kid will grow up and may migrate to more organized crime. Don't they have skateboarding in Turkey?
Posted by: SaveOurSkyline | December 8, 2008 5:24 PM
What kind of dipshit hacker uses FrontPage?
Posted by: NSherrard | December 8, 2008 5:32 PM
Banned,
Fair enough. That's kind of what I figured. And to be clear, I'm not saying that this sort of site vandalism is not an intrusion on someone's property rights, nor that penalties are inappropriate. It just seemed that things were getting blown a little out of proportion - suddenly I was reading indignant analogies referring to starving families and violence against little old ladies, and got a little annoyed (though not as annoyed as you must be today!). Anyway, I look forward to reading the article when your site goes back online.
Posted by: Jeremy | December 8, 2008 6:12 PM
I have never understood why people believe what hackers and criminals have to say. The two examples I can think of, is the way everybody believe that the "Nigerian scams" actually come from Nigeria based on the fact that the people trying to steal your money say that's where they live, and this case. It seems very trusting to believe that these hackers are actually from Turkey.
Posted by: Dutch Delight | December 8, 2008 6:19 PM
People were making all kinds of comparisons with theft on the street which is silly in the digital realm where the only cost of a perfect duplicate is disk space.
Now phishing, thats comparable to mugging someone on the street without the physical component since the victim actually looses property. And it's miles away from what happened to the site in this topic.
What happened here is the daily routine on the internet. Maintain your servers or be embarrassed by some 15 year old kid. There's a pretty good chance there was no data destroyed anyway, it's just a few lines of text to reconfigure a webserver to serve a static page instead of customer domains.
Posted by: Dutch Delight | December 8, 2008 6:31 PM
Oh, hi banned, hope you get your stuff back up and running soon.
Are people restoring your site for you or are you running a machine of your own?
You could do some investigating and see if you were a specific target if it's your own machine, otherwise your hoster will probably be working on some kind of statement concerning this incident which may or may not be honest about the scale of it.
Posted by: Escuerd | December 8, 2008 6:45 PM
Jeremy, I see where you're coming from, but it's not always merely an assumption.
When I first saw the Nigerian 419 scam, I also assumed it was probably originating somewhere else, but only because I didn't understand how the scam actually worked, and that it often depended on some degree of honesty about their location. My initial idea was that the scammers wanted bank information to drain accounts. This is not how they operate at all. Asking for an account is actually just to make the rest of the story more plausible (it's typically somewhat hard to take money out).
Instead, after they establish contact, they insist that they need money to pay for "advance fees" involved in legal hurdles they have to jump to unfreeze the promised millions of dollars.
There's actually a subculture of people who like to have fun leading scammers on for months, and occasionally reverse-scamming them (which is itself morally questionable, though its immorality was somewhat mitigated in the cases I saw because the ill-gotten gains were donated to charity). The site 419eater.com has lots of the email conversations of these "scambaiters" and many of them are truly hilarious.
As for this site hack, I think there are enough 1337 haxxors (especially kids) that have a weird sort of pride in the games they play that I'd be more surprised if he weren't Turkish.
Posted by: Blind Squirrel FCD | December 8, 2008 7:33 PM
Music's back. Just a long hiatus between songs. Probably takes them a while to turn the record over.
Posted by: Nemo Ramjet | December 9, 2008 5:11 AM
I live in Turkey and I'm familiar with the type of young brats who might have done this. Most of these are Kurdish or Turkish "white trash" schoolchildren with poor families and no real education to speak of. What little schooling they receive is little more than state indoctrination; the sense that "The only friend of a Turk is another Turk", and the outside world is always against them.
Such kids waste their lives in seedy internet cafes, spending entire days looking at porn, youtube, etc. I don't think any of them have an Islamist, or even Harun-Yahya related agenda. It's most likely that they were taken aback by the "Turkey vs. Dawkins" video on 3D science, and thought it was an insult against their Great Nation. Turks on the whole are very sensitive to jokes about turkeys of the Thanksgiving variety.
Posted by: Snark7 | December 9, 2008 5:14 AM
@C, #36:
"This isn't phishing, this is the digital equivalent of graffiti,"
And Graffiti, at least on others private property, IS a crime.