PBS Web Sites and Databases Hacked 387
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the hacker-supported-news dept.
from the hacker-supported-news dept.
wiredmikey writes "Late Sunday night, hackers gained access to several areas of PBS Web servers and were able publish a fake news story on a PBS news blog. The group also published PBS internal user login information that they were able to siphon out of PBS databases. The fake story was about rapper Tupac Shakur, who died in 1996 after being shot in Las Vegas, being been found alive and well in a small resort in New Zealand. A group going by the name of 'LulzSec' claimed responsibility for the hack, saying the attack was a protest against a PBS Frontline broadcast last week about WikiLeaks."
Once apon a time (Score:4, Insightful)
not any more :(
Cyber temper tantrum (Score:4, Insightful)
Teh cult of Assange strikes again! (Score:5, Insightful)
It is ironic that they violated the very freedom they see as being threatened
Find 'em and lock 'em up (Score:5, Insightful)
These punks need to learn that there are consequences for their actions. The trolling culture on the internet today teaches kids (and man-children) that as long as you're laughing, you win, and there are never any consequences for fucking with people. A reminder of how the real world works is long overdue.
Re:Find 'em and lock 'em up (Score:5, Insightful)
That is how the real world works.
Re:Once apon a time (Score:5, Insightful)
Agreed. I don't find it amusing at all.
Now I find it illuminating. It seems that too much effort is spent making Javascript animated menus and Flash sliding widgets and not enough effort is spent on patches, updates, and decent password policy. Corporate culture prioritizes pretty pictures to sell us more shit we don't need. Meanwhile our personal information - and therefore capacity to buy said shit - is in danger of being leaked.
From Sony to PBS and HBGary in between, too many companies are Doing It Wrong.
Re:I still found it amusing; harmless and humorous (Score:5, Insightful)
Surprisingly, crimes do not become okay just because some asshole on the internet laughed at them.
Re:Find 'em and lock 'em up (Score:0, Insightful)
"Hacking" should not be a crime in the first place and is not a crime everywhere. You are the authoritarian. This act is a protest. It is not censorship. They did not attempt to censor anybody. They brought a web site down temporarily or I should say added a story which is only going to be up temporarily.
Re:I still found it amusing; harmless and humorous (Score:5, Insightful)
Bullshit. They broke into a computer network, stole and released username/password combos, and mocked the system admins as they tried to regain control of the site. They have shown a pattern of criminal behavior, attacking anyone who dares say something they don't like. They are crooks, and should be treated as such.
Re: Once upon a time (Score:4, Insightful)
You can watch the FrontLine episode here (Score:5, Insightful)
You can watch the Frontline episode on PBS's website [pbs.org]. I love how PBS publishes a lot of their TV content online.
Re:I still found it amusing; harmless and humorous (Score:5, Insightful)
Yea it is no worse than burning books, or a cross on someones lawn, or painting graffiti on a synagogue. As long as no gets hurt is is all good right? I mean after all those actions do only about as much damage if any at all. I agree people are just too dang sensitive.
Re:Once apon a time (Score:5, Insightful)
Corporate culture prioritizes pretty pictures to sell us more shit we don't need.
And yet, isn't PBS a non-profit?
Re: Once upon a time (Score:5, Insightful)
Get real.
Other than extremists like the Tea Party, and people who don't want to hear the truth unless it's slanted toward what they want to believe, people who watch the media and track news know that PBS is good at reporting things as they are. (Polls even show that people on the left thing it's conservative and people on the right think it's liberal -- do the math -- if you're pissing off both sides, you're doing something right and reporting more news that biased parties don't want to hear.)
When it gets to the point that a news organization cannot try to do a balanced report without repercussions, it's not about revolutionaries, it's spoiled children who have to have their way.
Re: Once upon a time (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I still found it amusing; harmless and humorous (Score:0, Insightful)
Re:Manning is a hero. (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd rather know: my representative is really an asshole,
Oh he is.
What I didn't find amusing... (Score:5, Insightful)
...was my reaction to this story.
My first reaction was, "What? PBS? FrontLine? Really, guys, now you've gone too far."
But then, when I took a step back, I realized that I was portraying a double-standard. When Anonymous (or its derivatives) goes after Big-Corp, we all stand beside the hackers and shout out chants of "Yea, they're finally getting what's coming to them!" But when they attack an organization I have lots of respect for, it's only then where I feel that they've crossed a line.
But really, now that I see it, it is a double standard. When I now reflect on it all, it truly doesn't matter whether they are targeting an organization I have no respect for or one I have complete respect for. It is illegal. They are breaking the law and disrupting the business of the public. It needs to stop.
And shame on us for trying to rationalize a double standard.
Re: Once upon a time (Score:1, Insightful)
Che Guevara was a psychopathic mass murderer, not a revolutionary. That whole revolution thing was just an excuse to kill people for fun.
And, attacking the public broadcasting service because you don't like that the did a news story on something is wrong.
Personally, I think you are a dirtbag and hope that some "revolutionary" does to you what Che did to the 14yo who defended his father.
Re:I still found it amusing; harmless and humorous (Score:5, Insightful)
Tell you what, we will hack into your systems and give out your usernames/passwords. Then, you can tell us how it isn't serious. Right after you stop screaming for blood.
Re:Cyber temper tantrum (Score:4, Insightful)
"Do what we want and spin the news as we like or we will hack your systems again only we won't be so nice" that is the clear message here. It is a small group telling someone else to censor their information.
Re:I still found it amusing; harmless and humorous (Score:5, Insightful)
They did not do this as an act of good will. They did not do this in an effort to inform others about possible security holes. They did this because Frontline presented both sides of an argument about Wikileaks and these losers didn't like people saying anything bad about their idol.
Re:What I didn't find amusing... (Score:4, Insightful)
> And shame on us for trying to rationalize a double standard.
there's nothing inherently wrong with double standards as long as you don't exclude inseparable externalities. (in which case there never really was a true double standard in the first place)
when people throw shoes at Pres. Bush, it's funny.
when people throw shoes at Stephen Hawking it's not.
Re:Find 'em and lock 'em up (Score:2, Insightful)
These punks need to learn that there are consequences for their actions. The trolling culture on the internet today teaches kids (and man-children) that as long as you're laughing, you win, and there are never any consequences for fucking with people. A reminder of how the real world works is long overdue.
Seriously? Do you have a straight face on when you say that?
Because the way I see it, this is how the real world works.
This is the new civil disobedience.
You have a government that rewards the rich, bails out the corrupt, and yet you expect what is probably kids to find better ways to show their displeasure?
Get used to it, this is probably only the start.