War Spawns Online 'Hack-tivism'

A flurry of Web site defacements started 48 hours before the United States attacked Baghdad, with more than 200 sites hacked, according to Helsinki, Finland-based security vendor F-Secure.

Most of the defacements were related to the Iraq crisis, with hackers posting antiwar messages, but some of the defacements carried anti-U.S. or anti-Iraq messages, F-Secure said. The number of hacked sites continued to rise Friday, with an estimated 1,000 sites defaced, the company reported.

London-based security firm mi2g said U.S., U.K., Australian and South Korean online businesses have come under heavy attack, with their Web sites being vandalized. The attacks--primarily expressions of antiwar sentiments--are coming from various countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Mexico, mi2g said.

The start of the military campaign against Iraq "is likely to contribute to March becoming the worst month for digital attacks ever since mi2g records began in 1995," the company said.

The number of attacks against U.S. online interests reached 5,646 in March, more than the 4,364 attacks recorded worldwide, according to mi2g. The firm estimated the global economic damage of antiwar Internet attacks in March at between $2.1 billion and $2.6 billion, due to lost productivity and recovery costs.

Linux systems have been the primary target this month, with 71 percent of attacks against systems running on that platform, mi2g said.