15-year-old hacks 259 websites in just 3 months
If you’re looking for a gauge as to how good or bad web security is at the moment, look no further than the case of a 15-year-old from Austria who, over the course of 3 months, managed to hack 259 company websites and databases.
The young man (boy?) was anti-social and turned to the Internet for “praise and affirmation.” He found a hacking community that rewarded successful attacks, downloaded the tools he needed, and set about bypassing the security of different websites.
Between January and March this year he successfully gained access to 259 sites including a few run by adult entertainment companies. Any that he defaced were left with a tag like the one in the screenshot above. His hacker name was ACK!3STX.
The Federal Criminal Police Office (BMI) in Austria identified the boy after many complaints when he failed to hide his IP address during a hack. It was logged and passed to the BMI who arrested him. It didn’t take long for a confession to be forthcoming.
The attacks weren’t aimed at any particular sites, instead it turns out he was just looking for security holes he could exploit in any and all websites he visited. His reason? He was bored as well as wanting praise from the hacker community.
Hacking 259 websites in 3 months is impressive not because a 15-year-old did it, but because it seems to have been done so easily. A boy with no experience and using free tools did this. Clearly website security still isn’t a major concern for the majority of companies being hacked and/or the frameworks being used to implement them.
(Source: geek.com)
