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On the 23rd of March 2003
Zone-H reported the possible defacement "What we know is that
Zataz has been proved reliable over the time so here we are reporting
the news to you. We just hope this won't be another Mc-Williams-Vernon
story..." of
http://www.whitehouse.gov
Along with Zone-H, Rootsecure.net share concerns as to its
authenticity.
Points Against it being genuine:
- The provider of the
screenshot {The original screenshot link
no-longer appears to work -
Rootsecure.net Mirror} is French Magazine
ZATAZ (Google
Translation). [Why did they not capture the source
code also, with such an important defacement?]
- The magazine has taken the liberty of overlaying their website
name on the top left hand corner. [Free publicity?]
- The defacer used <title> tags, containing the usual White House
message "Welcome to the White House", when he/she clearly seems to
have erased the
rest of the page replacing it with a custom version. [Why
bother?]
- The defacer took the time to implement the page using tables and
different font sizes / fonts. [Again, why bother for a
defacement?]
- The link <http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030321-9.html>
is shown on the address bar. [How did it get there? - There are no
links on the page unless the defacer has gone to the trouble of
changing the link colour, to black and placing a hidden one, but what
would be the point?]
- The defacer did not leave their handle. [Most defacers would
at least leave a handle or email address]
- There are colour anomalies towards the top right of the word "Abuba".
[Were these caused by the jpeg compression or some bad Photoshopping?]
{Rootsecure.net has since learnt that the word "Abuba"
was added in to the screenshot by ZATAZ}
Points For it being genuine:
- Wired and Tech TV report
whitehouse.gov
was possible / was defaced before:
Wired:
Did Russians Get Whitehouse.gov?
TechTV:
White House Site Hacked Again
- Zone-H
do not have mirrors of any previous
whitehouse.gov
defacements. [Supporting the idea their IP was banned however
would
whitehouse.gov really bother to track and ban Zone-H's IP address,
which Rootsecure.net noticed recently changed?]
Update: Shortly after posting the the above story Rootsecure.net
received the following email from ZATAZ Magazine:
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Hello
My name is Damien Bancal, journalist for ZATAZ Magazine. For your
information, zataz magazine does not have anything a site of pirate or
hackers. We are a magazine of press paper and online. We noted by us even
defacement and preferred the capture with PSP that safeguard HTML. The fact
of putting zataz.com in top on the left makes it possible to give a source
to information.
As regards the colors modified in top on the right, the word abuba was added
on our capture in order to authenticate the author of the capture.
The authors of this hack did not leave a mel.
Cordialy
Damien / zataz.com |
Related Story:
The Register - Hacktivists DDoS 10 Downing St site
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