Subscribe by EmailHackers attack epileptic forum and make sufferers convulse
March 29, 2008 by Mark O'Neill |By Mark O’Neill
In what is being described as the first attack over the internet to cause immediate direct physical harm, hackers have caused an unknown number of epileptic sufferers to suffer seizures by hacking into an epileptic support forum and leaving flashing animation screens.
The flashing screens, made with javascript code, would then adversely affect those suffering from pattern-sensitive epilepsy or photo-sensitive epilepsy (I also suffer from a strain of it). This means that if the eyes are exposed to rapidly flashing lights for a prolonged period of time, the brain reacts violently and sends the body into a seizure. The risk becomes even higher if the flashing lights are in a darkened room such as a nightclub or a cinema (you may have seen cinemas warning epileptics about strobe lighting in movies)
Circumstantial evidence has responsibility pointing to a group that seemingly has a beef with scientologists (Edit: After further investigation, we believe that the culprits were not who everybody though to be responsible at first… everybody points their finger at everybody else, and it’s not our position to determine who did it. Please note that WIRED, which usually is a reliable news source, reported the story first). But it’s one thing to have an argument with a religious cult. It’s quite another thing to target a group of people with a medical disability and provoke traumatic and terrible seizures in their head.
I am trying to be impartial about this but being a fellow epilepsy sufferer myself, I am shaking at the moment with deep anger. I am currently going round several other epilepsy support groups online that I am involved with to see if anything has been going on there as well. Is this a co-ordinated attack or a one-off deal? It’s essential to know.
If any of you guys and gals hear anything on the online grapevine about who for sure is behind this, let’s get together and try to do something about this situation. Who in their right mind gets off on making people convulse uncontrollably? If they could just realize for a moment what a seizure actually involves and if they were to experience one themselves, they wouldn’t be so cavalier about inflicting that hurt on others.
You Might Also Like:
- How to run Mac OS X Leopard on your PC
- Hackers@Microsoft: A different kind of blog
- Pennsylvania State Disconnects from Internet Over Chinese Hacker Phearz
- Does the human brain have hidden super-powers?
ATTENTION: Newcomers from Wired, Digg, Engadget, Slashdot, etc. by OverlordXenu - 3/29/08 @ 7:46PM PDT#
Hello, and welcome to our treehouse.
I would just like to discuss this nasty business about a terrible raid on a forum for the poor people who suffer from epilepsy. What happened there was terrible, and we feel deeply sorry for those affected.
Users of this site did not actually attack those individuals. The Church of Scientology posted numerous threads across many *chan sites, and then informed people that Anonymous had been attacking victims of epilepsy. They did this under their “fair game” policy, to ruin the public opinion of Anonymous, to lessen the effect of their lawful protests against their virulent organization.
I must say, it is disgusting that the CoS is willing to drag innocent people down with them, in an attempt to save themselves. How could anyone be a willing participant in their terrible organization?
Sadly, none of our staff were online at the time of the thread’s posting, so we were unable to take it down.
We are truly and deeply sorry for what happened to these innocent people,
Thank you for your time spent reading this apology,
The Administration and Staff of 7chan.org
Feel free to email us at the above address or address us on our IRC server, and we will be happy to address any of your concerns regarding this terrible incident.
However, I doubt the guys come from 7chan (even if a good lot of *channers roam on several sites). For what can be found on 7chan’s /b/, looks like 711ch, and for what can be seen there…Well, looks like them (on /lulz/)
Yeah, that was a stupid stuff, but meh, Anonymous is anonymous. IF it was Anon, tho. Could have been COS too, and it doesnt really correspond to the classic lulz. Bad stuff, but if i understood correctly, at least nobody suffered anything “serious”, correct me if I’m wrong (I don’t say seizure is funny stuff, but no death/serious wounds/etc.)
In any case, 4chan nor 7chan seem to be involved, yet everyone always thinks Anonymous is so collected everyone is involved in everything. Such is not the case.
So condemn the attack certainly but wait till it becomes clear who did it.
Oh, and anonomous is trying to take down text based games (but not of the MUD type, a passive multiplayer text game)
Are you saying this is something that shouldn’t be discussed or brought to the public attention? Are you accusing Wired magazine (whom I linked to) of printing false information?
There are plenty of situations where epileptics might have problems (flashing banner ads?), including ones where no one meant any harm, so why not solve the problem by using an application that blocks flashing?
Load it. Use it. Love it.
Anyone claiming to speak for him is a liar and a scientologist, and will go to hell when they die.
To quote L. Ron Hubbard, “ENEMY — SP Order. Fair game. May be deprived of property or *injured by any means* by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.”
I am blood thirsty only to someone who does harm and what they did was more than harmful, it could have killed someone
Translation, I doubt it was anon. I have high confidence it was the CoS. And then there is the fact that the CoS has done worse than just simply cause someone left or tried to leave. I know that fact well. Just be glad no one was killed by the CoS this time…
it should also be reiterated that there is no governing anything for *chan; and it is likely most channers are as apalled about this as the next person
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
It’s amazing how much of a bully someone can be when they are hiding behind their keyboard in Mommy’s basement. I wonder if you would be this brave in person? Or would you be hiding behind Mommy, sucking your thumb?
Give me a call the first time you or someone you care about has a massive seizure, falls down the stairs and fractures their skull and ends up in the hospital. I’ll bring my camera and take a picture of you laughing your ass off.
-1 for the epileptics, they know (or should know) the dangers of the internet. You sign the waiver when you get on the internet.
People suffering from epilepsy have to go on living… and accept that this will happen from time to time, but things like this are just not right.
If you see someone disabled walking in the street with a pair of crutches, do you go ahead and smack him in the back? or kick his pair of crutches away? That’s stupid right?
Sure, this person can fall down anytime, for various reasons.. but who would actually force this upon them?
This is the same thing.
I mean, certainly it is possible to be untraceable (layered proxies, one of which deletes logs, for instance) but it is extremely likely that the majority of the culprits will have left traces.
Talking of traces: I see no trace of any announcement on their forums. I think this is make-news.
Honestly, if it happened, it was -no doubt- a CoS operation. Making all the GIFs and the Java stuff would have taken some time, and some interest, much more interest than was garnered on the chans.
If it didn’t happen, and it’s looking more and more likely, this is just CoS making news for the masses.
I dont know if it was Anonymous, the CoS or someone else but whoever did it is a complete jerk.
Also anon is a person and not a group. Just saying, you can’t judge everyone by one.
What I do know is that this doesn’t sound like Anon to me. If you look at raid targets in the past, they all pretty much deserved it.
In any case, condemning the whole of Anon for the attack is not the right decision. And believe me - it isn’t beneath the Scifags to try and frame us for this.
Not their style. However, it fits the standard setup for Scientology. Hope they can track the sources
To everyone else here ,
Bear in mind folks , CoS is Anti epilepsy medication by default.
The CoS have stooped far lower than this before in framing their opponents .CoS actually is against Epilepsy medication as a practice .In fact they encourage sufferer of this condition s NOT to take their meds ,and treat themselves with vitamins instead , its called “purification rundown” and is a dangerous process carried out by unliscensed laymen using Dianetics instead of recommended professional help. Thats how Herbert Pfaff died. Google it.
Who has more reason to attack an epilepsy site , a cult who dosn’tagree with epilepsy meds…or a random group of people on the internet , most of who claim to not have a clue as to why they are being blamed.
Perhaps now people will see why these anti Scientology rallies are taking place.
I saved copies of the 7chan /b/ threads where the attacks were being instigated both times (ie. last November and the recent EFA strike - see http://www.vbseo.com/f106/refback-came-handy-last-night-18013/ ). Shall I post the transcripts?
This attack had nothing to do with Anon or CoS. It’s just 7chan /b/tards doing what they do (over and over again). 7chan admins should stop condoning this crap and protecting the instigators IMO.
And you are welcome for me shining a light wherever I can on the subject. Cockroaches don’t like the light, do they?
Check out Tory / Magoo’s site at torymagoo DOT org. She was in CoS for decades, and actually left in part due to the insistence that she stop taking her seizure meds.
In my own biased view I have always believed anon punishes fucktarded individuals (mild and otherwise) on the internet not innocent people who were minding their own business. Though of course by innocent I mean something like old ladies on a forum talking about gardening and tea not 12 year old ‘artistic’ drama queens.
I don’t rightly care “who” did it…the sonofabitch that did it ought to be prosecuted, no matter which affiliation he/she belongs to. This was a crime against humanity, and everyone involved ought to be ashamed it happened.