Hackers take down International Women’s Day website


8 Mar 2011

Hackers have targeted the website for International Women’s Day, taking down the site three times today.

Organisers confirmed three denial-of-service attacks were carried out today as International Women’s Day celebrates its centenary year.

Women’s groups, charities, governments, corporations, schools, universities and the media have been geared up, organising rallies and events around the world today to celebrate.

Almost 2,000 events are occurring around the world with many further events happening online but organisers said hackers are trying to foil this activity.

“As the Centenary of International Women’s Day (IWD) struck in the Asia Pacific region, perpetrators commenced attacking the internationalwomensday.com website in an explicit attempt to prevent users from accessing the global hub for International Women’s Day,” read a statement on the website, which is back up and running after a multiple-hour hiatus.

“The attack was countered but a second major attack on the website struck as Europe was waking at 6am. The second attack was countered with service restored. A third denial-of-service attack was then experienced at 10am.”

“We are monitoring the attack but women’s spirits will not be dampened by the malicious attempts of those who do not support International Women’s Day,” said Glenda Stone, founder of the website. “Activity around the world will continue to mark the day’s significance as millions of women rise to campaign for equality and celebrate achievement.”

A denial-of-service attack occurs when there is an explicit attempt by attackers to prevent legitimate users of a service from using the service. The website was expecting 100,000 visitors today and the situation is still being monitored closely.

Article courtesy of Businessandleadership.com