Cyberwar on NASA Websites

Vexorian writes "Two NASA websites were hacked today by a group of Chilean activist hackers. The reason was to protest against the war on Lebanon. The mirror of the defaced site contains an image of an injured child and claims that the sites were running MacOSX."

I, for one...

I, for one, welcome our new Chilean activist overlords.

Re:I, for one...

Right... and defacing a NASA website for sure is a good way to "do some good".

Although some say that only active protesting works, I'm sure they didn't mean to sit on your chair and "h4x0r" some sites. Actually it's pretty sad to see one defacing websites in name of "peace and justice". It also concerns when someone say thats hacktivism, as it can create a bad impression about legit hacktivism activities (such as providing privacy for people in China, etc.).

And now...

This group goes with the others that in last days carried out attacks against governmental and commercial websites both from America and Israel, whereas other blackhat groups attacked Israeli websites provoking a denial of service (DDoS) of that particular webpage.

On the one hand, this is news; NASA is a big target. On the other hand, why are we posting a link to the defacement? We don't need to see it -- just report the story.

Look, I seriously doubt you're going to find that many people who think the war in Lebanon is a good thing, besides anyone with a vendetta against the Lebanese or the people selling bombs and rockets. You want to protest the war, fine -- but don't exepct me to care what you have to say when you can't make your voice heard in a public and legal forum. Defacing a website, any web site, is not the way to make me feel sympathy for your point of view.

Re:And now...

> [...] why are we posting a link to the defacement? We don't need to see it -- just report the story.

We don't particularly need not to see it. So, why not?

Re:And now...

Hezbollah, which is part of the Lebanese government, launched crossborder raids and fairly advanced rockets on civilian targets many miles inside Israel.

And Israel has done the same to Lebanon. Remember, Hezbollah only EXISTS because of Israel's invasion of Lebanon decades ago. They reap what they sow.

Re:And now...

And Israel invaded Lebanon because they Syrians and other nations used to to stage attacks on Israel. And they are staging attacks on Israel because Israel invaded their lands. And Israel invaded their lands because they attack Israel. And they attacked Israel because they didn't think that the UN should have made that a Jewish home land after WII. And UN made it a Jewish homeland at the same time it was creating countries out of what UK had taken from the Austria-Hungarian Empire in WWI! And they took it from....
Let's all be honest. Blame Italy. It is all their fault.
If ROME had not invaded Israel and destroyed the temple none of this would have happened.
Damn Italians.
Anybody that thinks that they state who is to blame and who is right and who is wrong in just a few sentances doesn't know what they are talking about. I sure can't say who is right and who is wrong. I lean towards Israel in this case just on motivation. Israel wants to stop attacks on people in Israel. Hezbollah wants to kill as many people in Israel as they can. Even that is just a guess. Like I said I don't know who is too blame. I only know who is suffering.

Why is this news?

Hacktivist hacks happen all the time. Is someone trolling for an Israeli-Lebanon Conflict discussion?

more proof of a foriegn policy failure

what with the shooting of Jews in chicago yesterday and now the Lebanon debacle that the US refuses to condemm even though 24 lebanese children died in a bombing in Quana this disaster of an administration have sown seeds of hate that will come back to haunt the US for years to come

staggering that in such a short time the US has gone from loved to hated , the conclusion is Bush and his cronies have put the US populace in a lot more danger than they where 5 years ago, and it is the populace that will suffer the consequences while the administrations operatives relax on their ranches in absolute luxury laughing

Re:more proof of a foriegn policy failure

Actually, the current Lebanese government was (yes, was) pushing for an improvement of US-Lebanon relations. After Syria had been kicked out, Condoleezza Rice came to Lebanon a few times, as they saw in Lebanon a potential ally, a burgeoning democracy, one that would champion the Moderate Arab values around the Middle East.

So, in this context, it is true that the US has gone from loved to hated in the span of 17 days. Everything that has happened since the beginning of the war has strengthened the radical elements of the Lebanese government (like it or not, Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese gov't and represents 45% of the population). Every civilian killed was proof that everything that the radicals have been saying about the "Zionists" and the "Imperialist American Dogs" was true.

Re:more proof of a foriegn policy failure

Unless, of course, those people dancing in the streets on 9/11 were, you know, doing it out of love.

Actually there was one Muslim country that had a candle light vigil for the US after the bombings of 9/11.

http://groups.colgate.edu/aarislam/response.htm [colgate.edu]

Funny that our so called allies (Saudi's, Kuwaiti's, etc) didn't give a rats ass what happened to us.

Re:more proof of a foriegn policy failure

I know how things are in Japan, and let me assure you that while there were people there who hate the U.S., and many who regard it with suspicion, the reputation of the U.S. has taken a steep decline since the Bush administration came to power, and especially since the war on Iraq. There was a brief surge of sympathy and compassion following 9/11, but the president is just too loathsome to ignore. I think it's safe to say that he is the second most disliked foreign politician, after Kim Il Jong.

Look, the fact that a bunch of people in the middle east go around burning American flags should not suprise you. What should be worrying is the fact that one of your closest allies now thinks you guys are power-mad and dangerous. I don't think either Japan or the UK will help you in your next war.

You seem to think that one either loves the U.S. unconditionally, or you hate it absolutely like those guys celebrating 9/11, and that there is no changing of opinions. The fact is, most of the world is not extreme and set in their ways like that, and your actions do have an effect on how they percieve you. Your administration has been pushing people away from liking you, so you might want to reconsider your actions.

more proof of a troll's idiocy

what with the shooting of Jews in chicago yesterday

Do you actually read the news, or just go with what you're told? The shooting was in Seattle - a very different place from Chicago. And Jews have been at the bottom of some people's "favorite peoples" list for centuries - I doubt our foreign policy could really ever change that in just a few years.

The world is not nearly as petty a place as some would like to think it is. Bush hasn't helped, sure, but anti-US sentiment has been building for years. We rule the world, but spend outlandish amounts on shopping trips and vacations to countries whose people can barely afford basic food and shelter. Then, when something happens to our own, we can't take care of them either.

We'd be a whole lot better off is more Americans would stop using Bush as a scapegoat (again, he might be a good one, but that's not the point) and started changing the way they actually lived - cut back on energy consumption, buy a hybrid or use public transit, demand true equality in civil services and protection in poor neighborhoods/regions, and quit mouthing off on the Internet complaining about your government when the House has something ridiculous like a 98% re-election rate.

We don't take responsibility for our own actions - and when something goes right, take responsibility whether it was our doing or not. That's why people hate us.

OS X hacked or the Web Application

What is not clear is... did they hack OS X or simply hack a web application running on OS X. I wouldn't say "Linux was hacked" if I was running an insecure forum or blog. The information is VERY thin, but I'm interested to see if OS really was hacked.

Re:OS X hacked or the Web Application

According to TFA it was an SQL Injection attack.

Today two NASA websites were attacked as well. The intrusion was carried out by the Chilean group of crackers known as Byond Hackers Crew through a leak in the SQL Injection they entered the system and subtracted user names, passwords and e-mails from the NASA web server.

As much as OSX on a server is a contradiction of terms at the best of times, this wasn't an OS level exploit.

Re:OS X hacked or the Web Application

OS X server may have a lot of problems, but its not insecure. (provided you use the LATEST version) The problem with OS X server is that apple doesn't like to patch old versions. For instance, a 10.2 server can be crashed easily if its running the built in samba. Exploits will kill an xserve very quickly. They are also a pain to administer, very bad things happen if the reverse dns is changed in 10.4 server, and the permissions model is a pain in the ass.

Yes, I did OS X administration for almost a year.

Re:OS X hacked or the Web Application

If you read their site, they used SQL Injection techniques to get the admin passwords and usernames.

NASA

Yeah! That'll show those NASA warlords.

I don't get it..

When last I looked into this it was a unilateral isreali action.

since when did NASA of all government agencies have to do with a war in lebanon.

It seems to me like theyre doing the cyber equivalent to nasa that isrealis are doing to lebanese civillian centers.

stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid....

Chicago, this ain't.

Then maybe we should have done the same to the chicago mafia in the 30's...

just shelled their places of business and damn the consequences...

Again, a non-workable analogy. The people smuggling whiskey and evading taxes in the 30's weren't launching missles from Chicago into Toledo, or proclaiming that only the destruction of Illinois is acceptable to them. They didn't randomly kill women and children, year after year, just to stoke things up (they just killed each other in a turf war over the smuggling market and related "industries").

The mafia wasn't a militant front for an oil-rich retrograde fascist theocracy that was shipping them millions of bucks and thousands of missiles.

It doesnt make sense to use millitary weaponry when surgical strikes on the ground would get things done.

If the Israelis stopped using precision weapons, you'd see the civilian deaths in the areas where Hezbollah keeps parking their weapons and launchers go from a few hundred to thousands and thousands over night. You do understand that you can't just march Israeli troops back into all of Lebanon and surgically remove Hezbollah weapons and infrastructure from the middle of the civilian presence in which they hide without an enormous invasion, right? It takes a gigantic supply chain, tons of armour, and thousands of soldiers - and it would take months and months, and many more Israeli deaths, which is exactly what Hezbollah would like to force them to have to do.

Hezbollah has had an uninterrupted six years to build bunkers, to booby-trap and mine their weapons storage sites, and to make sure that their personnel are woven completely into the fabric of the civilian population of Lebanon. Israel is being smart, and taking out the tools Hezbollah will need to re-supply themselves with weapons. Eventually they will run out, or Iran will have to more clearly show their hand by visibly pushing new weapons into the area by air - and they don't want to have that light shown on them just now. In the meantime, when Hezbollah pops out of a basement with a missle launcher, Israel hits that spot immediately, to destroy the cache that's there. They have no choice, other than to just tolerate more missles raining down on Haifa and beyond.

Way to go ...

... totally targeting the wrong people. Why target NASA, apart from it being a U.S. institution? It is non-military and seems an odd choice to attack.

Stupid activists (not a flame here.)

It is so easy to protest something that is right in your face on TV, isn't it? How about years and years of killing that have been going on in Israel by Hizballah and Hamas terrorist organizations? How about all those rockets that were launched at Israel from Lebanon within the past two decades? Maybe a UN server should be hacked, after all after 2000 UN and Lebanon was responsible for keeping Hizballah from amassing rockets and other weapons. Do these activists care when during the 'peace times' Israeli kids and adults get blown up?

If anything, these protestors should thank Israel for taking action now and preventing more carnage later. One cannot constantly procrastinate in this kind of a situation, because it is only getting worse.

Oh yes, and how about protesting where it actually makes sense: at Hizballah, at Lebanese, Iranian and Syrian governments. Protesting against regimes that allow terrorists to do what they do: use civilians AND UN folks as living shields on the battlefield. Not only are civilians used as shields, they are a great propaganda tool. When a terrorist launches a rocket at civilian targets in Israel from a busy market place in Lebanon, and Israeli army answers with fire at that place, is it the responsibility of Israel to make sure that Lebanese civilians do not suffer or is it responsibility of those, who used the civilians for their political gain around the world?

Here are a couple [apazhe.net] of caricatures [solomonia.com] that do tell something about the reality of this war.

Re:Stupid activists (not a flame here.)

Reminds me of some interview I saw on BBC with a IDF general.

BBC: You know you are killing innocent people?
IDF General: We are currently targetting Hizballah areas where they store rockets and fire into Israel. We told all civilians to leave many times.
BBC: Yeah but why kill innocent people?
IDF General: Why are innocent people next to Hizballah rocket installations?
BBC: But.. you can't..
IDF General: This is the fundamental difference between Israelis and Lebonense. Israelis are currently sleeping in bomb shelters. Lebonese are sleeping with bombs.
BBC: *Silence*

Re:Stupid activists (not a flame here.)

It is so easy to protest something that is right in your face on TV, isn't it?

Obviously not, considering all the things you ignore in your post.

How about years and years of killing that have been going on in Israel by Hizballah and Hamas terrorist organizations?

About as many years as Israel has been occupying territory outside its borders while disregarding its responsibilities as occupying power. Read carefully, I am not saying that they occupied territory for no good reason, but that once they did, they did not manage it in a way that was anywhere helpfull in solving the situation, and in some cases in direct violation of international law and treaties that Israel is a party to.

Before that it was a bunch of Arab nations that thought to drive Israel into the sea (with said occupation as the result).

The issue here is that the people living in those territories got a war on their doorstep without asking for it, and have since suffered mostly from Israelian military actions and irresponsible administration of their territories. It is absolutely no wonder they support anyone who seems to be able to act against this (even if such action works against them in the longer term, living in a war zone makes you think about today and maybe tomorrow, but not much further, which is a tendency people have already anyway)

You may not remember this, but when Israel entered Southern Lebanon for the first time in the late 70s, they were hailed by the Shia population there as liberators because of them trying to get the PLO out. It only took a few years to reverse that situation however, not the least due to Israel refusing to control its proxy militia in South Lebanon (the South Lebanese Army). Israel did not create Hezbollah as such, but they are the ones responsible for it finding a lot of grassroots support among the South Lebanese people and having developed into what it is now.

How about all those rockets that were launched at Israel from Lebanon within the past two decades?

Many aimed at population centers with the aim to kill or wound civilians. Absolutely unacceptable.

But how about taking an action that you know to have virtually zero chance of success and actually a high likelyhood of worsening the problem (and with history telling a clear lesson about this) that risks the life of many civilians? This is what Israel is doing in Lebanon today, again.

Maybe a UN server should be hacked, after all after 2000 UN and Lebanon was responsible for keeping Hizballah from amassing rockets and other weapons. Do these activists care when during the 'peace times' Israeli kids and adults get blown up?

Actually, they do. Thank political games from various parties involved (including, but definitely not limited to Israel) for the situation on the ground.

If anything, these protestors should thank Israel for taking action now and preventing more carnage later. One cannot constantly procrastinate in this kind of a situation, because it is only getting worse.

Acting in a way that has repeatedly shown to worsen the situation however is stupid, and when it causes damage on the scale the current actions in Lebanon are doing, it also does not deserve support, no matter how justified you believe Israel is in defending itself.

Of course hacking NASA websites is not exactly a good way to make an opinion known, regardless of what the opinion is.

Re:Stupid activists (not a flame here.)

if anything, these protestors should thank Israel for taking action now and preventing more carnage later.

If anything, Israel is throwing a match into a powder keg. Can you imagine the public support now for Hezbollah, given that 800'000-1M lebanese are fleeing from their homes?

We can argue, whether Israel is right for reacting somehow to the Hezbollah provocation. We CANNOT argue, that what Israel is doing now is not solving anything, given an average person's intelligence and given basic facts.

There is no military solution to the middle east crisis, except a nuclear war. There is only a sociological/political solution.

Re:Stupid activists (not a flame here.)

" We CANNOT argue,"

Sure we can. You because YOU say we can't, doesn't mean anything. Especially what you judge has "basic facts". You need to read beyond whatever you've been reading.

Hezbollah is dragging the civilian population of Lebanon into this by hiding amongst them, and rocketing Isreal as they do it. They set up next to those UN peacekeepers, they've kept some Lebanonese people from getting out of their homes in the south when those people try and leave. They've built tunnels back INTO Israel carry on this war.

This is part of their whole gameplan. That IS a fact. The only way to disarm them is militarily. They're not going to go willingly, and they're certainly not just going to give up all those missiles that Syria has been supplying.

Am I missing something?

The reason was to protest against the war on Lebanon

Hezbullah kidnaps and kills Israelis on their own territory. Israelis try to get them back. Hezbullah fires 100's of rockets into Israel to terrorise the civilian population. Israel wages war to exterminate Hezbullah. Chilean hacker defaces NASA website. Am I missing something?

Re:Am I missing something?

They gave back all of the Gaza and the West Bank, and withdrew all their settlements.

What are you talking about? They withdrew from Gaza, yes, but since then have blocked anything and anyone from entering or leaving. There is no economy, no money flow, no medicine flow, nothing going into Gaza. Yes, Israelis left, but they completely choked it up.

As for the West Bank, when did Israel withdraw from there? Most of the West Bank is currently occupied by huge Israeli settlements built on Palestinian land (as per the Oslo accords). There are also the ultra-orthdox Jewish settlers who create new "settlements" on Palestinian farmland by terrorizing its owners then erecting makeshift homes and shoot anybody who comes close. The Israeli government is trying to dismantle those, but at the same time expanding their other "legal" settlements by annexing more Palestinian land. Not to mention the completely illegal wall that is eating up even more Palestinian farm land.

They gave the terrorists everything they asked for and complied with every request the UN made.

Really? They definitely did not give back Jerusalem. They definitely did not allow UN peace inspectors into Gaza and the West Bank, and thanks to the US, they do not have any binding UN sanctions against them because of the American veto.

Stop pretending that Israel is the perfect peace loving nation. Israel does not want peace, because peace is not in its favour.

They did NOT hack OS X

They did NOT hack OS X. They simply hacked the application database running on those platforms. Why would the author indicate OS X was hacked when really, it looks like a large number of the servers hacked were in fact running Linux.

I'm not saying OS X is unhackable, but leaving ANY insecure server software running is asking to be hacked.

Spiral of Escalating Violence

When Martin Luther King led the nonviolent marches that pulled off a second American Revolution without a second Civil War, the marchers didn't trespass or tear down signs. That's why they changed the attitude and culture of America, which is the victory everyone needs in these conflicts. The victory that others who accepted or embraced violence lost, like Farrakhan's Nation of Islam, the Black Panthers, and all the hundreds of forgotten "freedom fighters". Even when their agenda and goals included important results that would be good for practically everyone, they polarized, alienated and pushed people into defensive positions on even indefensible parts of the status quo.

Chileans vandalizing America when Israel attacks Lebanon doesn't change anyone's minds for the better. It just escalates by a little bit the spiral of violence:

Ignorance -> Fear -> Anger -> Violence -> Alienation -> Ignorance

The central front in the Terror War is in our own minds, where that well-worn cycle can send us all to our doom.

Wow what logic

Hacking NASA's site to protest a conflict between Israel and Lebanon? Wow, why did't I think of that? Maybe if we bombed Chile we could defeat all hackers too!

Script Kiddies Make Slashdot, DOS NASA

The real news here is that Slashdot articles continue to decline in quality. Hacktivism sounds exciting, but these guys are just script kiddies with a No War sig. Yesterday alone they defaced 296 sites, none of which had any political significance. They happened to find an old PHP application on a backwater NASA website (the Aura Validation Data Center), and they took the opportunity to step up their normal text sig to include a graphic picture.

The only reason that this is newsworthy is because Slashdot made it newsworthy. The greatest impact came not from the script kiddies or their vaguely political scribbles, but the deluge of the Slashdot effect on some poor iMac in Alaska.

Morons

See, the first website you should be hacking is Hizbullah. They are the terrorist fuckers whose little cross-border kidnapping raid led to the deaths of hundreds of their fellow Lebanese.
Second, you should be hacking Ehud Olmert's site -- the first non-military Israeli prime minister in ages, who decides to prove his miltary virility by bombing Lebanese children.
Then, the IDF, the Knesset, the Mossad.
Then, the Arab League, for being pussies and not helping Lebanon.
Then, the White House and US Congress, for not pressuring Israel to stop. Maybe the Pentagon if you are so inclined
Then, don't forget to hack your own government's site, for not sending humanitarian aid to Lebanese refugees.


And you do NOT hack NASA, not unless a space shuttle fuel tank falls on Beirut.

Hmmm...

These hackers need to be taught how much involved NASA is in killing Libanese people. :-p

Here goes...

Mod me troll if you want to, but having read all the pro-israeli comments just makes my stomach turn. Only this morning over 50 Lebanon civilians, many of them children, were killed by Israeli bombs.

Yes yes, Hesbulla has been lobbing rockets at Haifa, but this was only after Israel flattened half of Beirut.

Oh sure, they kidnapped 2 Israeli soldiers, how could I forget! But is that reason enough to slaughter 450+ civilians? If a para-military group in Canada kidnaps 2 people, do you start bombing Toronto?

And now back to why the rest of the world really hates the US right now: because they could have easily supported UN resolutions or stopped Israel but they didn't. They are just letting the bloodshed continue, angering millions of muslims even more. Israel is firing US-arms in a unilateral war against a sovereign nation. Doing so, they are only strengthening the ranks of Hesbulla and isolating themselves even more. I am no Hesbulla-fan, but think about what you all are cheering for: supporting Israel at this point is no better than supporting Bin Laden when he struck New York: an unilateral, unprovoked attack on a civilian population.

And if hacking US websites is a way to get that into American heads, so be it.

Re:Here goes...

Keep in mind not a single civillian would have had to die if their heroic freedom fighters in Hezbolla didn't insist on setting up operations in the center of residential neighborhoods, launching rockets from their cities, and overall using the civillians as human shields.

You're an idiot who has been thoroughly taken by the terrorist propaganda. As someone previously mentioned, an IDF general put it best: "Israelis are sleeping in bomb shelters. Lebanese are sleeping with bombs."

Re:Here goes...

Again, I'm no fan of Hezbulla, but please try to keep objective and look at the facts.

I'm sorry, but you make it sound like this war just started a week ago. Did you just start reading the news? Do a little research and see how many people Hezbollah has killed. They've been attacking Isreal for over 20 years now. Open your mind for a second and try to put yourself in Isreal's position. What would you do? There's really no good answer here, but would you just sit back and let your people be killed and kidnapped?

Re:Here goes...

You make a strong point. Except Israel just released video of that strike that they did on that building that killed the 50+ people and sure enough it looks like from the video that the missles are being fired right from behind the main large 4 story building on top of the hill. Yes that is truly sad so many woman and children were killed/crushed to death and I have compassion; but as some news agency have been reporting is 'where are all the young and older men casualties at in the building?'. Could they have been firing from the building from behind or somewhere else at dead night? Argument that they could not get out because of roads/bridges blown were false because the news crews have been reporting they got there with their big news vans easily.

Re:Here goes...

The Bush administration does not understand the Arab community. The Middle East has a long tradition of successful military campaigns. The culture in the Arab world demands military success and takes pride in that. When the Arab world was unable to defeat Israel on multiple occasions the collective Arab world was humiliated. They are unwilling to forgive Israel but also their own leaders for their military failures.

When a foreign nation like the USA takes down an Arab government like Iraq there is the same sense of humiliation. That the Arab world was itself unable to take down a brutal dictator but also in the post-war occupation they are unable to govern its people. However when a group like Hezbollah is able to stand up to Israel, even though Hezbollah is a Shiite group, the Arab street is overwhelming in favor of those who they perceive as standing up to foreign aggression. At the same time they criticize their leaders for not taking a similar stand.

The Arab world is desperate for some sort of success, be it military or political and are willing to cheer on even the most insidious of organizations. The longer this conflict goes on, the more civilians who die and the more Hezbollah holds out the more radicalized the Arab world will become.

I think the Bush administration is right in that we should invest in democracy, freedom and economic prosperity in the Middle East. This is the long term strategy that will provide peace in the region. However it can only come through political action. A military strategy will only be ferociously resisted by the Arab world.
 

Re:Here goes...

Of course in your reasonable-sounding comment, you leave out the fact that Hezbollah has never ceased hostilities towards a nation whose existence it denies. They have continually engaged in terrorist attacks, kidnappings, and have refused to disband according to the Taif agreement. They are also not a native Lebanese force. They are originally based in Iran, comprised of Iranian military forces. It's nice to see your balanced view completely ignore this, and jump on Israel as if they have been anything but attacked and harassed over the past 50 years by their neighbors.

I feel sorry for the Lebanese, as they are not really responsible for Hezbollah attacks (besides not taking action against them, anyway). However, the Israelis have leafletted the areas in question, and any civilians who remain in the area after that are either supporting the terrorists themselves, or willing to risk the lives of their own families to stay. In fact, the children who have been injured or killed are victims of their parents and Hezbollah, not Israel.

A nation should not have to endure endless kidnappings of their soldiers/citizens without taking action. Your attempt to compare Israel to the U.S. above shows your ignorance of the situation. A true comparison would be if Ontario was hosting a terrorist group which *regularly* fired rockets, employed suicide bombers, and kidnapped people from the border area and demanded the release of known murderers in exchange for the lives of the kidnapped people. Then, after the exchange (Israel at one point did exchange prisoners, for as little as the remains of the dead) continued to fire rockets, bomb, and kidnap more U.S. citizens. Meanwhile, Canada showed no interest in taking care of the problem themselves, and in fact were terrorized by the same group, but unable to oust them.

That would be apples to apples, except that there would be no Jews to blame. Don't worry though, I'm sure you could come up with some way to justify the terrorist actions, and oh the poor children, what are we doing to the children!

Vidar

South Americans? Arabs? Whats the difference

It makes perfect sense that the hackers came from south america and not an arab country. My own government (the UK) is way ahead in removing that particular distinction [wikipedia.org]

Seriously though, the reason they hit NASA was because they could. They almost certainly scanned through all US government sites for a vunerability they could exploit, and NASA just happened to have one.

Also, you should be thanking them for this. This form of protest hurts exactly nobody. A sysadmin gets some extra overtime, thats all. If you guys didn't have contempt for peaceful forms of protest like this, perhaps people wouldn't feel the need to murder thousands of you just to get your attention.

Re:South Americans? Arabs? Whats the difference

I find the term 'cyberterrorism' offensive. Get some fucking perspective.

Someone sets off nail bombs in pubs just because the occupants happen to be gay, thats terrorism.

A guy gets on a bus with a dynamite waistcoat and wipes out a load of commuters, thats terrorism.

Some prick hijacks a jet and flies in into a skyscraper full of people, thats terrorism.

Fucking up somebodies webserver? Not even close.

Mislead title - it was juge a mass defacement

A good protest for a mass defacement, but the title is missleading.

While MacOS X (appparently), they didnt "target" NASA computers.

Matt

Photos you did not see on CNN

http://209.67.212.138/~lebanon/ [209.67.212.138]

It hurts. Sure, you can find similar photos from Israel too, but these are a small group of extremists vs. a government who really should know better.

Fuck Hizbollah, and fuck the Israeli government.

Lessons from Northern Irish IRA

"As many prior posters have quoted, the difference between Israeli citizens and Lebanese citizens is that "Israeli citizens are sleeping in bomb shelters; Lebanese citizens are sleeping with bombs."

Nice soundbite, it makes it sound like the children are complicit in missle launches, but of course they were just innocent victims. Did they choose or even know who was next door? You are using the vague phrase 'Lebanese citizens' to try to blanket transfer blame from SOME terrorists to A WHOLE COUNTRIES POPULATION.

This strategy can never work. Consider the case of the IRA in Northern Ireland. We faced their bombs regularly in Britain, yet we never did anything so foolish as to bomb huge sections of ireland in the hope of flushing them out. It would be counter productive, it would simply create more terrorism.
In the same way this strategy can't possibly ever fix the problem Israel has with its northern border. It will simply increase the terrorism, and decrease their security.

Not a very effective location

What is funny is that the kinds of people who would visit a website like NASA are the kinds of people who probably are against the conflict in Lebanon. Also I wonder why people would blame the US for this war. The US has an army of diplomats trying to encourage all sides to agree to a ceasefire. Do they think the US enjoyed evacuating it's people from Lebanon? Everything is the US's fault, unless it was something positive.

Lebanon has the best looking flag, it's like the Canadian flag only better. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Lebanon .svg [wikipedia.org]

other defacements?

Other defacements [zone-h.org] by the same group

a side effect of the new war

Why do we assume that an attack on a US 'target' (NASA) is protesting a war between israel and lebanon?
Last time I checked, iraq was still at war..

NASA?

Am I the only one that finds it stupid that these "cyber terrorists" attacked sites associated with NASA? Sure, it's a .gov, but why not hit a site that will get more notice or is at least somewhat related to what is happening in the middle-east. Not like something like this matters, america backs isreal no matter what they do, some momentary annoyance isnt gonna stop that.

some how oddly appropriate...

That stupid lazy "hacktivist" attack NASA websites, to protest the atrocities in Lebanon, because they are easier targets than say for example cia.gov, while Israel pummels Lebanon, because they are easier to make war with than the real villians behind Hizbollah, i.e. Syria and Iran.

Disarm Hizbollah? That worked so well in Iraq

First off, I want to add my voice to those that say: Fuck Israel and Fuck Hizbollah. Fuck Hizbollah for dragging Lebanese civillians into a war where they are utterly defenseless. Fuck Israel for so utterly disregarding civillian lives (accidents my fucking arse).

Fuck Israel for being so fucking dumb as to not have learnt its lesson from the last time they invaded Lebanon. Hizbollah won then and Hizbollah is no weaker now. Fuck Israel for being so stupid as to always make disgustingly bad excuses for the wholesale slaughter of civillians. Fuck Israel again for being so numbingly stupid as to not realise that every bomb that falls on Lebanon makes Hizbollah more popular in the Arab world. And again, fuck Israel for achieving what no Iranian Mullah or politician could: unifying the Shia and Sunni sects against Israel and the west.

You think Israel can disarm Hizbollah? You must have also thought that the US could pacify Iraq. Look how well that turned out and how "disarmed" they are.

And Fuck Bush and his cabal of poodles in the UK who are too stupid to see where this is going: Destroying whatever miniscule amount of credibility the US and the UK had in the Arab world and dragging us one step closer to World war 3.

And you know who must be laughing so hard at all of this that they must be pissing themselves: The Russians and the Chinese.

Rover Over

And the hacked rover wrote "I dig Osama" in the Martian sand.

What kind of picture was it?

Something like this [karantan.org]?

Anything less graphic is Israeli propaganda. This is what their so called self-defence looks like.

Why bother with reporting this

Seems the leet hackers got what they wanted.. media coverage.. If everyone just said "fuck it" and didn't report on this stupid crap then it wouldn't happen.

-- A snip of some moron on IRC a while back that I had the pleasure of meeting --

Dec 12 16:44:13 <Hollyweed> do u know to use cc's?
Dec 12 16:45:28 <Rez> card?
Dec 12 16:45:31 <Rez> credit cards?
Dec 12 16:45:34 <Hollyweed> yes
Dec 12 16:45:41 <Rez> why?
Dec 12 16:45:50 <Hollyweed> im a big carder
Dec 12 16:45:53 <Rez> ahh
Dec 12 16:45:57 <Hollyweed> wanna join our server
Dec 12 16:46:03 <Rez> well i don't do illegal things
Dec 12 16:46:10 <Hollyweed> you can make scriptsd
Dec 12 16:46:14 <Hollyweed> scripts*
Dec 12 16:46:15 <Hollyweed> for users
Dec 12 16:46:18 <Hollyweed> that they need
Dec 12 16:46:20 <Hollyweed> if u want
Dec 12 16:46:31 <Rez> nope
Dec 12 16:46:38 <Rez> its illegal stuff
Dec 12 16:46:41 <Hollyweed> ok its ur choice
Dec 12 16:46:44 <Hollyweed> ;)
Dec 12 16:46:50 <Hollyweed> u r afraid
Dec 12 16:46:51 <Hollyweed> ?
Dec 12 16:46:54 <Hollyweed> of CIA FBI?
Dec 12 16:47:58 <Rez> no i'm not
Dec 12 16:48:02 <Rez> i have morals
Dec 12 16:48:08 <Hollyweed> ok !
Dec 12 16:48:09 <Hollyweed> :D
Dec 12 16:48:10 <Rez> and i work for my living
Dec 12 16:48:15 <Rez> i don't need to steal things
Dec 12 16:48:19 <Hollyweed> sorry for inconvinience
Dec 12 16:48:21 <Rez> get a job and make money
Dec 12 16:48:32 <Rez> and stop rippin people of
Dec 12 16:48:50 <Hollyweed> its not for money
Dec 12 16:48:53 <Hollyweed> its for fame
Dec 12 16:49:38 <Rez> yeah
Dec 12 16:49:44 <Rez> get fame from rippin people off
Dec 12 16:49:58 <Hollyweed> did u see the news from CNN
Dec 12 16:50:03 <Hollyweed> we got in news
Dec 12 16:50:28 <Hollyweed> look bro
Dec 12 16:50:39 <Rez> i don't watch cnn
Dec 12 16:50:41 <Hollyweed> we do that for Fame to show the world that isnt secure
Dec 12 16:50:48 <Rez> so
Dec 12 16:50:48 <Hollyweed> we will always get trough them

<snip him talking about killing chickens>

Dec 12 16:53:02 <Rez> just to become famous
Dec 12 16:53:08 <Hollyweed> yea
Dec 12 16:53:10 <Hollyweed> to show the world
Dec 12 16:53:13 <Hollyweed> that isnt secure
Dec 12 16:53:23 <Rez> sorry to burst your bubble
Dec 12 16:53:32 <Rez> but everyone knows there are bugs
Dec 12 16:53:48 <Rez> its created by man then it can be hacked
Dec 12 16:53:50 <Hollyweed> yea of cours
Dec 12 16:54:03 <Rez> so all you're doing it making peoples lives hell
Dec 12 16:54:17 <Rez> and thats what terrorist enjoy doing
Dec 12 16:54:26 <Hollyweed> heh
Dec 12 16:54:30 <Hollyweed> no its not what u thing
Dec 12 16:55:05 <Hollyweed> what u think*
Dec 12 17:02:01 <Rez> either way its people like you that make the world a shithole all becuase you want to be on the news
Dec 12 17:02:49 <Rez> if it wasn't for the communist news network (cnn) reporting it all then you wouldn't get anything
Dec 12 17:02:49 <Hollyweed> we wanna show them asses that they arent the best theres out somewhere always will be someone better
Dec 12 17:03:23 <Hollyweed> lool
Dec 12 17:03:37 <Rez> why not stop cracking the code and put your coding to good use and make something better?
Dec 12 17:03:41 <Rez> everthing about that?
Dec 12 17:03:46 <Rez> dout it
Dec 12 17:03:55 <Rez> becuase that wouldn't get your name all over the news
Dec 12 17:04:05 <Hollyweed> yea of course!

- - - - -

A

Shouldn't they be defacing Israeli websites?

Why are they defacing a NASA website? Different government agency, different government, different continent. We are over there trying to broker a peace deal. If some hacker has a beef with Lebanon then take it out on Israel.

Both sides are wrong.

The guys firing rockets into Israel are wearing plain clothes and firing from residential neighborhoods. They know Israel is going to immediately retaliate, and they know that when they do, that residential neighborhood is going to become a smoking wreck full of dead bodies. This will in turn make Israel look like they are baby killers and soul less and re-inforce the muslim sentiments that Israel needs to be destroyed. They know that Israel doesn't have the troops to fight a ground war and that the only response they can make is with their airforce. And they exploit this to force Israel to kill innocent people. If anybody should be pissed it should be the people of Lebanon. If I saw a rocket truck parking in front of my apartment I would be telling them where to fuck off to. And the terrorists certainly know that Israel will strike back yet they continue to attack from residential areas. The reason is they are fighting the only way they can. If they wore uniforms and attacked on the open battlefield they wouldn't stand a chance. So they are using the devils logic and fighting the only fight they can, knowing full well that innocent people are going to be killed because of their actions.

And Israel has equiped their armed forces in such a way that they use small groups of special forces backed up by overwhelming air power to defend themselves. They don't have enough people to go in on the ground and in any case they are fighting an enemy who dresses in street clothes and can blend into the wood work. The rules of Geneva don't apply here and it's not a conventional war. The enemy could be anybody because they don't wear uniforms and attack from everywhere. So Israel does the only thing it can and they attack back, even knowing that they are going to kill innocent people because it's the only thing that Israel can do.

You can comment on who's right and who's wrong from the safety of the USA all you want. But the fact of the matter is that if someone were firing rockets at US cities from Mexico or Cuba you can be sure that people would be up in arms demanding retaliation. You can't expect the Israelis to just stand back and take it!

I'm so sick of hearing about cease fires that are broken, and a new peace process that ultimately falls to shit, and suicide bombers, and tanks rolling through Gaza. Even when they weren't at war it was still a daily war. I'm so sick of it that I wish they would just get it over with. Get the fight out of your system, go to war, re-learn how truly horrible and inhumane it is to kill your neighbors. And maybe when enough people have died, and the site of blood is everywhere, maybe then the offers of peace will be real.

War sucks, people die, the innocent always suffer the most. But is living a civil life with daily bombings and rocket attacks any better?

Get it over with.

Re:Oh, those wacky Arabs!

Arabs? Chile is in South America for crying out loud!

Re:Doesn't make sense

I think you need to look at some other news channels apart from Fox!

Re:Doesn't make sense

Let's see... an Israeli plane blows up a building in Lebanon after warning the people to leave.

So if the 9/11 hijackers had warned us they were going to destroy the WTC, it would have been OK? That's absurd. Whatever you think about the conflict in the Middle East, don't forget to look at it from both sides. We're all humans, right?

Re:Doesn't make sense

I'm sorry but when you try to justify the killing of innocent civilians you have already lost the argument. Surely war is war and civilians becoming victims of "collateral damage" can be explained. But it can never be justified. Once you claim that killing innocent lives is morally right you have lost all moral authority.

Re:Doesn't make sense

All this anti-Israeli and 'anti-Zionism' talk around the world is just anti-semitism resurfacing and trying to pretend not to be. The Israelis are great people that are surrounded by millions of people who have surrendered their minds to a death cult. The Israelis do what they must. They don't get any pleasure from it. But they don't shrink from it, either.

I'm greatly saddened to see your comment modded up to +5, Insightful, given it is a fairy tale trying to pose as reality.

So, in your mind, anything critical of the policies of Israel is anti-semitism. Because that is what you have written. The Israeli people are no different from the palestine or lebanese people: Mother Theresa and that serial killer Manson belong to the same human race. There is of course ideology flung around, but labeling all arabs as being part of a death cult is "anti-arabicanism". If you think that anti-semitism is bad, then why do you exercise "anti-arabicanism"? The sole reason I put quote marks around that phrase, is because it is not even in common use to describe a behaviour that is exhibited in your own post.

I don't think the Israelis are doing what they must. I think they keep voting in politicians that act as if they and only they could protect them from a not lifethreatening (on a national scale) enemy (doesn't that sound familiar?). What the Israelis need to do is vote for less comforting, less "black-and-white" world viewed politicians, who can do their best to solve the problems on the middle east. While it might not look so good, because there are many compromises to be reached, both the israelis and palestinian/lebanese people would end up safer. If history ended up teaching something, is that unilaterialism end up in empires, and that empires fall.

Re:Oh, those wacky Arabs!

The Hezbollah army builds their bases on the ground floor of civilian apartments. They are literally hiding behind women and children. Both sides (Hezbolah and Israel) are equally to blame for the civilian deaths. And since the Syrian and Iranian government are funding the rocket attacks, shouldn't these hackers be hacking Syrian and Iranian sites as well? Could it be that hacking US sites just provides bigger bragging rights?

Re:Think of the Children!

Please tell me you are being sarcastic. There have been plenty of vulnerabilities and patches for OS X. http://secunia.com/product/96/ [secunia.com] . I'm so sick and tired of the myth that OS X is the "most secure" and "unhackable". It's an Operating System just like Windows and Linux and it's not perfect either. You can love OS X for various reasons but NOT because it's "unhackable".

Re:Oh, those wacky Arabs!

Actually, it's Chileans, so, it's more friend of my friend's enemy's friend is my enemy.

Re:Think of the Children!

Did you just feel a breeze over your head? From a low-flying joke perhaps?

Re:Um, military sattelites

Even more than that, NASA has put up every single US military sattelite

Wrong. Military satelites are launched by the Air Force, not NASA, at Vandenburg AFB or Cape Canaveral AFB. NASA is strictly civilian launches, even if many astronauts (especially commanders and pilots) are former Navy or Air Force.

Re:Um, military sattelites

NASA has put up every single US military sattelite.

Do you have proof for that because i think the military contracts to many different companies like Boeing and Lockeed Martin. Those companies may use NASA or military launch sites to launch it.

What the f**k have you been smoking?

So what you're saying is that hypothetically if I am going to bomb the s**t out of your house, by giving you an advance warning makes it okay? What the f**k have you been smoking?

Re:Um, military sattelites

See, posts like this are why we need a "-1, Wrong" mod option.

Re:Oh, those wacky Arabs!

Let's not play your game. Your commentary is so one-sided, lacking both accuracy and context, that it's laughable.

Question: Which country alone in the Middle East has nuclear weapons? Answer: Israel. (Ignore this, lameness filter bypass)

Yeah, except for that one nation called Pakistan. Oh and Iran in 10 years if we let them.

Q: Which country in the Middle East refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and bars international inspections?

Except for that country called Iran. Yeah, they signed it, but they certainly haven't lived up to the treaty. Not to mention that Syria has not signed the CWC or BTWC.

You know I was intending of going line by line on your commentary, but it's obvious from your first two "points" that you did not intend to add a well-researched comment to this discussion and I know better ways of spending a Sunday afternoon than exposing trolls.

Re:What's so hard to understand?

MacOS = BSD based = 'nix.

It's unfortunate that the world is full of so many morons who (a) cannot tell propaganda from bullshit, and (b) can't creatively channel their frustrations. Hacking a NASA website won't stop a single Israel bomb or Hezbollah rocket from falling on civilians.

Well...

I am sure that the NASA websites are well traveled and poorly defended government website. What website would you have them hack instead?

Re:Um, military sattelites

Still, I don't get it.

Hacking a site dedicated to exploration of space in order to protest a war they have no interest in or concerns over (when was the last time you saw NASA troops deployed anywhere?)

I suppose it was an easy target. That doesn't make it right, clever, effective, or help anyone become sympathetic. It, instead, gives the impression of a bunch of chilean script kiddies who found an exploit and were using it just as the news releases about lebanon came out.