Attrition staff frequently endures abuse from script-kiddy groups who are under the misguided belief that we work for them. We have been harassed and chastised if we are slow in posting a defacement or if we happen to miss one. We have to remind these kids that our work for Attrition is done in our spare time and without compensation. Our "Going Postal" section has numerous examples of this, and our typical responses. http://www.attrition.org/postal/z/null1/n0014.html

When some members of Sm0ked Crew took a simliar attitude, we made it painfully clear that we are a non-profit Web site, managed and maintained in the spare time of the participating staff. The Sm0ked Crew members were very apologetic and expressed appreciation for the voluntary work done by Attrition staff.

Unfortunatly, they were not content with expressing their sentiments privately and chose to make a public statement on their next defacement - which happened to be the NY Times business section. We had no knowledge that they planned to deface the site or make such a statement. We certainly would have discouraged them from both actions. Attrition has a legal obligation to inform law enforcement if we have prior knowledge of a crime and to comply with federal subpoenas. We first knew about the defacement when we received several emails to "hacked@attrition.org" after it occurred. (See the Attrition "Notes" section for details on how we are informed of defacements: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/notes.html)

While we appreciate that Sm0ked Crew had the best of intentions in greeting us, we would like to emphasize that such public statements are unnecessary and unwelcome. Unfortunatly, we have no control over the actions of others. The Attrition mirror is a news source for web defacements. We want and strive for a neutral position in all things related to performing the duties required to run the mirror.

- The information and commentary is Copyright 2001, by the individual author. Permission is granted to quote, reprint or redistribute provided the text is not altered, and the author and attrition.org is credited. The opinions expressed in this mail are not necessarily the opinion of all Attrition staff members.

Commentary Archive: http://www.attrition.org/security/commentary/
The Attrition Mirror: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/
Country/TLD Statistics: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/country.html
Attrition Defacement Statistics: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/stats.html
Operating System Graphs: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/os-graphs.html
Other Web Defacement Mailing Lists: http://www.attrition.org/security/lists.html
Contacting Attrition Staff: staff@attrition.org