A barrage of recent attacks by hackers has cast a spotlight on the vulnerability of the Internet and its millions of websites and users. In the days following the release of highly classified government documents by the whistle-blower Web site WikiLeaks, thousands of supporters of the site called "hacktivists" have launched brazen online attacks toward groups they feel have condemned the free flow of information.
Visa, PayPal and Mastercard have all been targeted by hackers, as each of these organizations stopped processing donations made to WikiLeaks. Even government sites, such as that of the U.S. Senate, have been attacked following public criticism. And over the weekend, Gawker--an online media company and blog network--had its databases hacked, unlocking the user names, passwords and e-mail addresses of 1.3 million users of the site.
In each attack, the so-called hacktivists who work under the guise of pseudonyms like Gnosis and Anonymous, use software that links together hundreds of computers that all request information from the same website at the same time. In turn, this causes an overflow that makes the site inaccessible, causing it to "crash."
This recent slew of hacks has technology experts warning users to create passwords that are more secure. Messages sent by hackers involved in the Gawker attack noted that over a thousand passwords created by users was nothing more than the word "password." Experts warn if users are not more adamant about their protection, then not only will their privacy be compromised, then so to will the systems they use.
Quotes
"If you pay a little attention to your password, you can make it harder, and you're going to knock out the lower-end hackers, which is mainly what we have seen in a lot of these WikiLeaks and Gawker things." --James Lewis, Center for Strategic and International Studies
"What they [hackers] did to Gawker was come in behind the scenes in the past few weeks, past few months, figure out vulnerabilities, and essentially start to take the keys to the kingdom." --Hari Sreenivasan, PBS NewsHour correspondent
Warm Up Questions
1. What is an Internet "hacker"?
2. What are some websites that you use a password for?
3. When you hear the term "cyber security," what does that mean?
Discussion Questions
1. How does "crashing" a company's website could hurt it?
2. How can you make a strong password? What might be considered a weak password?
3. What could be the personal consequences of using a password that is weak?
4. What do you think websites could do to better protect their information and also that of their users?
Additional Resources
Who Are the 'Anonymous' Hackers Supporting WikiLeaks?
Hayden: Hackers Force Internet Users to Learn Self-Defense
WikiLeaks Finds Itself Target of, Inspiration for Cyber Attacks
