Having trouble convincing the powers that be of the need to spend money on firewall protection? Tell them to drop the purse strings, grab a browser and check out a selection of mangled Web sites preserved for all time by the folks at Computer Security Canada Inc. (CSCI) of Ottawa. Viewing the original and hacked pages of such unlucky organizations as the U.S. Department of Justice, the CIA and Kriegsman Fur, all of which were subjected to most unsavory alterations by ambitious and apparently very opinionated hackers, should be enough to send even the staunchest disbelievers scurrying for network protection.
CSCI, along with the U.S.-based National Computer Security Association, finds security holes big enough to allow hackers easy access on at least 80 percent of the sites they audit. “Computer hackers are a serious threat to the integrity of every organization with a network hookup,” says Nahum Goldmann, CEO of CSCI. “These are not pretty pictures.” For that reason, the company offers this warning: “All [pages] are uncensored, so shield your children.”
In addition to pictures of hacked sites, CSCI has a “Hackers Hall of Fame,” detailing the exploits of the world’s most notorious computer bad guys. Visit the company at www.csci.ca.