Site defacement

Website defacement (sometimes called defacing or disfiguring) is the result of hacking into a website, made possible by weaknesses in the website itself, compromise of administrator credentials, etc. It is a particularly damaging attack for the target organisation because it has a very strong impact on reputation and image.

It is a particularly damaging attack for the target organisation because of the very strong reputational and image impact it has. Its impact is immediately visible to a very large number of users, and the higher the profile and visibility of the target organisation, the greater the impact. It is also damaging because it shows the general public that the organisation that owns the site has not been able to adequately protect it.

It takes the form of replacing legitimate website content with plain backgrounds, logos, videos or even text or messages.

The motivations of the attackers vary, but are often political or ideological. On numerous occasions in the past, hackers claiming to be Anonymous have attacked websites for political reasons, such as in 2012 against Chinese sites protesting against the regime. Other groups also made a name for themselves in 2016 after the website of a major French TV channel was taken down, again for political reasons.

Some groups don’t hesitate to deface individual websites as part of a more global cyberattack, for example using ransomware to put further pressure on the victim organisation.