While numerous sites were targeted in this weekend`s hacker competition, Internet traffic hardly "slowed to a crawl", as had been predicted by some security firms.
The competition, announced at www.defacers-challenge.com, which was subsequently taken offline, offered a prize to the first hacker to deface 6 000 sites.
Within minutes of the 0600 GMT official starting time, 300 sites reported having been hacked to Zone-H.org, an Estonian site that tracks hack attacks. However, the initial fervour waned and the final deadline was extended to allow for more scope. By the time the competition concluded at 1800 GMT, no big-name sites had been attacked and the much-publicised threat was dismissed as being merely a pest.
Zone-H.org, which was supposed to be used as an informal hacking tracker for the competition, was knocked offline by both hackers and legitimate users checking in to monitor progress. Some of the small Web sites that were attacked were also transformed into pointers to other hacked sites.
The low level of the threat is being attributed by some to the souped-up security measures adopted by some sites when they became aware of the threat. "At least we knew it was coming," Peter Allor, manager of X-Force Threat Intelligence Services at Atlanta-based Internet Security Systems, told the Washington Post. "We took some efforts to harden our sites."
Even though nothing happened to her site, Joanne Hughes, a spokesperson for Via Networks, felt that the increase in security measures was a positive step. "If it makes people more aware about security, then that`s a good thing."
Others feel that the threat was over-hyped. "It seems to be a damp squib," says Graham Cluley, a spokesman for UK-based security firm, Sophos.
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