'Anti-Sec' Group Hacks Popular Image Site, Demands Changes In Security Research

ImageShack, one of the Web's largest image hosts, was attacked over the weekend by a group called "Anti-Sec," which is demanding changes to the security industry's practice of full disclosure of vulnerabilities.

According to a report, the group replaced many of ImageShack's hosted images with its own manifesto, which states, in part:

"The security industry uses full disclosure to profit and develop scare tactics to convince people into buying their firewalls, anti-virus software, and auditing services...if whitehats were truly about security, this stuff would not be published...

"...Our battle is that of the removal of full-disclosure for the purpose of making it harder for the security industry to exploit its consequences. It is our goal that, through mayhem and the destruction of all exploitive and detrimental communities, companies, and individuals, full disclosure will be abandoned and the security industry will reform.

"How do we plan to achieve this? Through the full and unrelenting, unmerciful elimination of all supporters of full disclosure and the security industry in its present form. If you own a security blog, an exploit publication Website or you distribute any exploits...'you are a target and you will be rm'd. Only a matter of time.'

"This isn't like before. This time, everyone and everything is getting owned."

Another report states that the hackers were able to send email to ImageShack customers using the addresses that the site, itself, has registered for those users.

While security forums today were abuzz with discussion about the group's allegation that full disclosure is detrimental to security, researchers generally said they weren't sure how serious the group's threat is or exactly how the hack occurred.

A screen cap of the defaced website here.