Monday, March 31, 2008
Hackers Circumvent Browser, Attack Brain
Filed under: Net News
The world of hacking has achieved another milestone when a team of culprits managed to attack an online forum of epileptics, using Java script pop-ups of seizure inducing imagery. They must have thought it very funny. Perhaps a few months with Tony, the seizure inducing federal cell mate, would help the bastards reconsider.
The incident, possibly the first computer attack to inflict physical harm on the victims, began Saturday, March 22, when attackers used a script to post hundreds of messages embedded with flashing animated gifs.The attackers turned to a more effective tactic on Sunday, injecting JavaScript into some posts that redirected users' browsers to a page with a more complex image designed to trigger seizures in both photosensitive and pattern-sensitive epileptics.
RyAnne Fultz, a 33-year-old woman who suffers from pattern-sensitive epilepsy, says she clicked on a forum post with a legitimate-sounding title on Sunday. Her browser window resized to fill her screen, which was then taken over by a pattern of squares rapidly flashing in different colors.
Fultz says she "locked up."
"I don't fall over and convulse, but it hurts," says Fultz, an IT worker in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. "I was on the phone when it happened, and I couldn't move and couldn't speak."
After about 10 seconds, Fultz's 11-year-old son came over and drew her gaze away from the computer, then killed the browser process, she says.
More at Wired...
(hat tip: Engadget)
Image courtesy of Salmon...
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examples: <b>Bold</b> <i>Italic</i>
