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View Full Version : Hackers Assault Epilepsy Patients via Computer


Chruser
2008-05-09, 09:31 AM
Internet griefers descended on an epilepsy support message board last weekend and used JavaScript code and flashing computer animation to trigger migraine headaches and seizures in some users.

The nonprofit Epilepsy Foundation, which runs the forum, briefly closed the site Sunday to purge the offending messages and to boost security.

"We are seeing people affected," says Ken Lowenberg, senior director of web and print publishing at the Epilepsy Foundation. "It's fortunately only a handful. It's possible that people are just not reporting yet -- people affected by it may not be coming back to the forum so fast."

The incident, possibly the first computer attack to inflict physical harm on the victims, began Saturday, March 22, when attackers used a script to post hundreds of messages embedded with flashing animated gifs.

The attackers turned to a more effective tactic on Sunday, injecting JavaScript into some posts that redirected users' browsers to a page with a more complex image designed to trigger seizures in both photosensitive and pattern-sensitive epileptics.

RyAnne Fultz, a 33-year-old woman who suffers from pattern-sensitive epilepsy, says she clicked on a forum post with a legitimate-sounding title on Sunday. Her browser window resized to fill her screen, which was then taken over by a pattern of squares rapidly flashing in different colors.

Fultz says she "locked up."

"I don't fall over and convulse, but it hurts," says Fultz, an IT worker in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. "I was on the phone when it happened, and I couldn't move and couldn't speak."

After about 10 seconds, Fultz's 11-year-old son came over and drew her gaze away from the computer, then killed the browser process, she says.

"Everyone who logged on, it affected to some extent, whether by causing headaches or seizures," says Browen Mead, a 24-year-old epilepsy patient in Maine who says she suffered a daylong migraine after examining several of the offending posts. She'd lingered too long on the pages trying to determine who was responsible.

Circumstantial evidence suggests the attack was the work of members of Anonymous, an informal collective of griefers best known for their recent war on the Church of Scientology. The first flurry of posts on the epilepsy forum referenced the site EBaumsWorld, which is much hated by Anonymous. And forum members claim they found a message board thread -- since deleted -- planning the attack at 7chan.org, a group stronghold.

Fultz says the attack spawned an uncommonly bad seizure. "It was a spike of pain in my head," she says. "And the lockup, that only happens with really bad ones. I don't think I've had a seizure like that in about a year."

But she's satisfied with the Epilepsy Foundation's relatively fast response to the attack, about 12 hours after it began on Easter weekend. "We all really appreciate them for giving us this forum and giving us this place to find each other," she says.

Epilepsy affects an estimated 50 million people worldwide, about 3 percent of whom are photosensitive, meaning flashing lights and colors can trigger seizures.


Source: http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/03/epilepsy

Thanatos
2008-05-09, 10:08 AM
Holy shit. I mean... that's funny to me in a way (I don't have epilepsy, so fuck off), but how big of a lowlife do you have to be to pull some shit like that? You have nothing better to do in your free time than fuck with epilepsy patients? Get real.

Although, I lol'ed :(

D3V
2008-05-09, 10:36 AM
I got the same thing from the story, it is funny in a really, really bad way. But honestly, why? That's like fucking with senior citizens, or something of that nature.

KagomJack
2008-05-09, 12:29 PM
That's pretty low. :/

Kaneda
2008-05-09, 12:56 PM
LOL! Ingenious.

RaiDesu
2008-05-12, 06:45 PM
4chan/7chan strikes again. At least OCD is a harder target, for I have obtained safety for the time being.

Asamin
2008-05-12, 06:52 PM
Holy shit. I mean... that's funny to me in a way (I don't have epilepsy, so fuck off), but how big of a lowlife do you have to be to pull some shit like that? You have nothing better to do in your free time than fuck with epilepsy patients? Get real.

Although, I lol'ed :(
The same type of person that would hack the portal to the front page of Zelaron, an English forum, and give us a link to an Arabic forum.

RaiDesu
2008-05-12, 07:03 PM
'Tis staff's flaw in the first place, allowing such a gaping hole in the fortress wall.

Willkillforfood
2008-05-12, 07:06 PM
Having dated a girl with epilepsy, it's a pretty fucked up move. They're haunted their entire lives by migraines, seizures, etc. and it can kill them. It's pretty sophomoric and the perpetrators deserve to have their nuts cut off.

Asamin
2008-05-12, 07:11 PM
I was on a subway once when a girl had a seizure. Pretty fucking scary to see someones eyes roll up like that.

RaiDesu
2008-05-12, 07:12 PM
'Tis a suitable punishment. Alas, there is always the dawning possiblity that you face ennuchs.

Vault Dweller
2008-05-12, 07:19 PM
Having dated a girl with epilepsy, it's a pretty fucked up move. They're haunted their entire lives by migraines, seizures, etc. and it can kill them. It's pretty sophomoric and the perpetrators deserve to have their nuts cut off.


For perhaps the first time, I completely agree with Willkill. This wasn't funny in the least. This is as bad as the kids who videotaped the handicapped kid being beaten unconscious on the school bus. This is the type of shit that makes me wonder if the human race has actually progressed beyond savagery.

Willkillforfood
2008-05-12, 07:23 PM
Wow, I'm surprised. I'm the epitome of sensability ;). Well, it's a start ;).

Kaneda
2008-05-12, 07:48 PM
'Tis a suitable punishment. Alas, there is always the dawning possiblity that you face ennuchs.
Ya ok kid. What are like e supporter?

Willkillforfood
2008-05-12, 07:50 PM
Your sentence makes no fucking sense.

Kaneda
2008-05-13, 12:48 PM
What? My sentence!
How about you tell little Mr. I'msodifferentfromeveryone that this is the fucking 21st CENTURY
Also, I was on the Wii and that was supposed to be an A.

Asamin
2008-05-13, 01:01 PM
Then edit an A in there.