Web Vandalism Still Lulzworthy - Report

"A study of 57 Web site hacks from last year showed that 24 percent were aimed at defacing a site rather than financial gain.

"The figures from the latest Web Hacking Incidents Database Annual Report suggest that stealing money and data is not always the overriding motivation for hackers, although it has been a rising trend in recent years.

"`While financial gain is certainly a big driver for Web hacking, ideological hacking cannot be ignored,` the report said, which was sponsored by vendor Breach Security with support from the Web Application Security Consortium.

"Although there were hundreds of thousands of Web site attacks in 2008, the report set a strict criteria for its analysis: It looked at only those incidents that were publicly reported, were associated with Web application security problems and had an identifiable impact on an organization.

"These criteria allow people to understand the potential business impacts as opposed to just the technical failure, which is important in order to manage risk, the researchers said.

"Web site vandalism may carry a lower risk for organizations than a financial attack, but still highlights insecure Web pages."

From PC World...