Security Officials Issue Hacker Warning

[Joolz]

From: "Zone Labs" <news@zonelabs.rsc02.com>

Reply-To: "Zone Labs" <input@zonelabs.com>

To: ishop@uk420.com

Subject: Security Officials Issue Hacker Warning

Date: Thu, 3 July 2003 15:56:54 -0700

Dear Valued ZoneAlarm Customer,

You may have heard about the "Defacers Challenge" taking place this

upcoming weekend. The U.S. government and several technology experts

have warned that an organized contest among hackers has been planned

for Sunday. The objective of the contest is to deface company Web

sites.

While the attack is not aimed at individuals, hackers often use

individual's computers to launch these types of attacks. And although

this does not represent an extreme threat, it's an important reminder

that even though we may be relaxing in the sun, hackers are still

hard at work.

To ensure that you are fully protected, we wanted to remind you to

check your version of ZoneAlarm and make sure you are running the

most recent version.

Our entire line of consumer firewall products has been updated over

the past three weeks. If you have not updated your product yet, we

recommend you do so now.

You can access the latest version by clicking on the link below:

http://www.zonelabs.com/latest

To maximize your protection, we also recommend checking your

anti-virus software to make sure you are running the most recent

version.

You can find out more about the "Defacers Challenge" story at:

http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-1023172.ht...html?tag=fd_top

One last thing...if you plan to be out of town over the weekend, the

best security is to turn off your PC.

Have a safe and relaxing weekend!

Zone Labs

[splan]

Or just unplug the broadband on Sunday! I'll be asleep most of the day as I'll be partying hard all night Saturday!

[Unit]

Or just unplug the broadband on Sunday! I'll be asleep most of the day...

Yep - that's what I'll be doing!!

[bongme]

Hi All

I think it would be better to all have a day off on Sunday and just do some work on the site or just chill until Monday, this way no one will get hacked at all, NO SITE NO HACK

Hope this helps

I will be haveing Sunday off am no fool

Bongme

[bongme]

Hi

Add on...

Hackers compete to deface sites

Friday, 4 July, 2003

Data could go missing this weekend

Security experts are playing down the likely effect of a hacking contest due to take place on Sunday.

The 6 July contest aims to see 6,000 websites defaced in six hours and will award points to hackers for the types of sites they manage to vandalise.

The US Department of Homeland Security said there was no need to put out a public warning about the competition but said all companies should be vigilant.

Security firm Ubizen said the contest was being overblown and was unlikely to cause serious disruption.

Hacking contests occur all the time and typically goad computer vandals into stealing or destroying data, defacing websites or launching remote attacks on other sites.

The rules the competition have been posted on a website called defacers-challenge.com.

Damage control

Zone-H, a site that records website defacements, said the number of attacks on sites were declining in the run-up to the weekend, suggesting that many people were seeking out fresh targets before the day of the competition.

The competition will award points to defacers based on the operating system running the site being vandalised. The supposed prize for the winner is 500 megabytes of webspace.

Zone-H said it expected more than 20,000 attacks to take place on Sunday.

Some malicious hackers may already have a backdoor into many internet sites and may wait for an opportunity, like the competition, to exploit these loopholes.

However, the US Department of Homeland Security said the threat was not serious and it saw no reason to issue a public warning.

"Hacker contests are relatively common, so I'm a little mystified why this is receiving so much attention," said a Homeland spokesman.

Its advice to firms to be vigilant was echoed by other security firms who told companies to patch websites, check for backdoor vulnerabilities, close unwanted ports and look for well-known flaws in popular software packages they use.

Companies that own or run lots of different websites are thought to be most at risk of receiving attention from any hackers participating in the contest.

Security firm Ubizen, which manages network security for many companies, said reports about the danger that the competition posed were overblown.

Bart Vansevenant, Ubizen's director of International Security Strategies, said the contest was a "storm in a teacup".

He said if the contest had any victims they were likely to be small companies.

"There are probably millions of small, unprotected websites out there that are easier targets to hit," he said, "so the major banks in the world really don't need to worry."

Bongme

Nothing Will stop these pepole they are the best out there

[mickle]

Security firm Ubizen said the contest was being overblown and was unlikely to cause serious disruption.

I think similar.

Its hardly likely to make people who dont "hack" do it so its only the same pool of people anyway.

[NPK]

Some malicious hackers may already have a backdoor into many internet sites and may wait for an opportunity, like the competition, to exploit these loopholes.

That's the main point in my mind. The majority of sites that get defaced will have been hacked already, weeks or months ago, and then 'saved' for the comp'.

npk

[sittingrelaxing]

is it a marketing scam to get people to buy anti-virus software......???? :laser:

errrm.............sorry

i thought this was the conspiracy section..........

sr

[NPK]

is it a marketing scam to get people to buy anti-virus software......????

Sounds about right.

npk

[Joolz]

You can protect yourself against most internet nasties for free

http://www.zonelabs.com offers a free firewall.

Or for about £34 quid you get the xtras of ad/cookies/mobile code blocking and a filter that stops malicious attachments in emails being executed

Free Anti - Virus software is available from http://www.grisoft.com

Virus db is constantly updated, it scans all incoming and outgoing emails using most popular mail clients and it detects web pages running malicious scripts and stops them from loading

Beat the hackers and big business

Download both for free today

Peace

Joolz

[bongme]

hi

Add on...Phewww

Hacker competition fails to bite

Zone-H was hit during the contest

Monday, 7 July, 2003

A widely publicised hacking contest which encouraged vandals to deface websites has ended without causing serious trouble.

Early reports suggested that the event could disrupt the net for many users but Sunday passed with little incident.

Security firms and experts said that the event fizzled out and no high-profile sites suffered damage.

One of the few casualties of the event was the independent website recording the sites that the hackers did manage to deface.

Damage limitation

Roberto Preatoni, founder of the Estonia-based Zone-H site that tracks attacks, said the final tally of defacements would not be known for 36 hours until the logs of claimed successes had been scrutinised.

The organisers of the Defacers Challenge wanted to see more than 6,000 sites defaced or disrupted during the six hour duration of Sunday's competition.

Points were awarded for the different types of sites hacked.

But security firms monitoring the event said they did not think that more than a few thousand sites had been defaced.

"It seems to be a damp squib," said Graham Cluley, spokesman for security firm Sophos.

One of the few sites that did suffer on Sunday was Zone-H, which was acting as independent scorekeeper for the competition.

It came under attack on the day and the site's patchy performance plus the unexciting winning prize, 500MB of storage space, contributed to the poor turnout.

Some sites of small firms were known to be hit by hackers on the day but none of the big hosting companies that look after many thousands of sites reported successful defacements.

Publicity about the competition was thought to have helped firms prepare and put in place security measures to combat vandals.

Bongme