Hackers hit Australian Classification website

PALGN News | Seems they aren't happy about the censorship issue either.

It's no secret that we here at PALGN have been quite vocal about the current controversy surrounding videogame ratings and censorship in Australia, but last night internet hackers voiced their opinion as well, changing the welcoming message on the the Australian Classification Board website.

The website, which includes classification policy information, had its main page message changed by the hackers in certain ways to create a rather interesting paragraph:

This site contains information about the boards that have the right to CONTROL YOUR FREEDOMZ. The Classification Board has the right to not just classify content (the name is an ELABORATE TRICK), but also the right to DECIDE WHAT IS AND ISNT APPROPRIATE and BAN CONTENT FROM THE PUBLIC.
We are part of an ELABORATE DECEPTION from CHINA to CONTROL AND SHEEPIFY the NATION, to PROTECT THE CHILDREN. All opposers must HATE CHILDREN, and therefore must be KILLED WITH A LARGE MELONS during the PROSECUTION PARTIES IN SEPTEMBER. Come join our ALIEN SPACE PARTY.

While there seems to be no clear indication of when the attack began, Gamespot reports that it appears to have occurred shortly after last night’s ABC Q&A programme which featured Minister for Communications Stephen Conroy discussing proposed mandatory internet filtering, lending to believe this, along with the current game rating debate, may be the reason for the attack.

Gamespot was also told by a Classification Board spokesperson that they were still investigating into the act, with the website having been taken offline temporarily.

Related Content

Classification finally for Australian online games?
05 Feb, 2009 More classification confusion.

Silent Hill: Homecoming classified in Australia
07 Jan, 2009 Receives a MA15+ rating by Australian Classification Board.

Fallout 3 refused classification
09 Jul, 2008 Hearts fall in disappointment.

Page12 3 Next

50 Comments

Kurupt

3 years ago

Hackers: 1
Australian Communists: 0

Darkar

3 years ago

Kurupt wrote

Hackers: 1

Australian Communists: 0

GOLD!

This is so awesome words cannot explain,
Remind me of the hackers that get police signs.

" police are..now targeting..hackers..I R WIN "

Dani

3 years ago

This is not awesome. This is immature. It further supports the idea to the non-gaming population that the majority of gamers are merely children throwing a tantrum.

**** morons.

The Genius

3 years ago

People shouldn't support this. It makes gamers look bad! This is all playing into Artinkson's hands as it further validates his point about violent games.

Gamers 0

Artinkson 1

Jaws

3 years ago

It's certainly not helping the mature approach that PALGN have taken with their initiative and simply throws more fuel on the fire, giving politicians with thorns in their side like Atkinson much more ammo to present to a public not in the know about the entire topic.

I dont see the humour in it at all Matt. Im not sure how much personal bias one is allowed to entire in their news posts, but by stating that the attack is humourous makes it look like PALGN is in two minds about the subject - with one hand; going to great lengths to send a positive message to a governing body, yet with the other it is laughing along with the public at an act that would have obviously been disruptive to the OFLC.

As for the hackers targetting the Office of Film and Literature. The OFLC are just acting within their means. Whilst they lack the 'tools' to do their job, games not matching the draconian guidelines they must enforce will continue to get pushed back or worse. I don't think it's a good idea to smile at their misfortune as they aren't the bad guys here. It's the people who are holding back the legislation that are causing the issue. Hence I see this pointless "attack" as being directed at the wrong source. If this group really wanted to send a message, why not plaster their local town with flyers to or do something that actually has merit when it comes to raising awareness on this issue?

Please don't take this out of context and as a slight against you Matt. We have the right to free speech, but we've seen what happened when a rep from Nintendo labelled people who weren't happy with the Wii's storage solution as nerds or something similar.

A personal spin it was, but it reflected poorly on Nintendo themselves.

Whilst this is on a smaller scale, im sure that the OFLC wouldn't appreciate someone having a laugh at their misfortune as we'd all be pissed if a website made mention to PALGN being hacked.

ittekimasu

3 years ago

This wasn't the way we needed to get their attention, i can't help but see the goverment twists this into something that highlights their stance if approached by the media.

Matt Bassos

3 years ago

Quote

I dont see the humour in it at all Matt. Im not sure how much personal bias one is allowed to entire in their news posts, but by stating that the attack is humourous makes it look like PALGN is in two minds about the subject - with one hand; going to great lengths to send a positive message to a governing body, yet with the other it is laughing along with the public at an act that has undoubtedly set back the ratings board.

Oh don't get me wrong, I personally don't condone it all either, but news is reported as it is, and it's definitely is an interesting paragraph for better or worse. There is no other implications that any one at PALGN is laughing along with what is going on here. Perhaps amusing wasn't the best choice of words which I have edited.

waz79

3 years ago

we are anonymous

jk

Benza

3 years ago

This has nothing to do with games.

The hack coincided with the Q&A show last night about Internet Censorship with senator Conoroy, who repeatedly focused on the fact that the classifaction board is the one in charge of listing sites for the black list to 'protect the children' the site was also refrenced in the show to see specificl classifactaions if I recall correctly.

This is about people being pissed off at the internet black listing, not R rated games.

The Genius

3 years ago

^^Yes it does.

The hackers clearly refer to "protecting children"

That is a familiar Atkinson phrase.

It's a clear dig at Atkinson by the hackers.

Fetidchimp

3 years ago

which is also the motto of conroy's blacklist

Lord Haart

3 years ago

Sure are hell isn't helpful or mature, but I still found it funny. :P

Seriously though - I say we shouldn't let this take the fire out of our arguments. No matter what side you're on, there's always people on your side you wish we one the other side - but that doesn't make our opinions invalid.

The government has done some pretty stupid things lately in the name of "safety", and if honest sites like Whirlpool are getting hit for stupid reasons, you can't help but feel that the government doesn't care how mature we are, just that we are helpless and don't have the ability to get in the way of their agenda. So while I don't support the hacking, I still am not surprised by it, nor do I feel particularly sorry for the OFLC. It's hardly like they put viruses on the site, or stole data. I know it reeks of liberalism, but the government does need to become aware that there actually IS a debate to be had here - up til now, they seem to just ignore everything and do whatever the super-protective parents say, even the dumb ones that can't see why an R18 rating protects their kids.

MrAndyPuppy

3 years ago

The Genius wrote

^^Yes it does.

The hackers clearly refer to "protecting children"

That is a familiar Atkinson phrase.

It's a clear dig at Atkinson by the hackers.

As FetidChimp says - this is also Conroy's catchcry and with the site going down and slowly being defaced (a few people mentioned to me seeing different content appearing on the site before it finally went down completely) during the Q&A session which was addressing the proposed Clean Feed, I think it was aimed at him, not Atkinson.

Conroy also said a couple of times during the Q&A that the classification board is responsible for something to do with the blacklist/content stuff, so I suspect this adds further weight to it being aimed at him.

Benza

3 years ago

The Genius wrote

^^Yes it does.

The hackers clearly refer to "protecting children"

That is a familiar Atkinson phrase.

It's a clear dig at Atkinson by the hackers.

If you watched the Q&A that was clearly the motto of Conoroy.

There was also a 4chan Anonymous making a video question on the show, and we all know how much 4chan abhors hacking websites to make a point.

FootStool

3 years ago

It's also a very common internet censorship phrase.

This whole thing reeks of legion, they use CAPZ AND ZZZZZ.

This is 100% about internet censorship, WIN, LOLZ and the fact that they can't control the people who control the internet.

treehugger24

3 years ago

How do we really know that they got hacked? It could be all a ploy by them to make gamers look worse and support their cause. Just some thing to think about not that it is likely the case

döppelgangbang

3 years ago

Amusing hack. As far as I can see it wasn't particularly malicious and reeks of pranksterism. Misdirected? Yes. But the issue is so broad there is no single back you can stick the kick me sign to to get your message across. Atkinson has challenged opposes to meet him on political grounds - it is the mature legal way to get your message across, but it IS his turf. I can understand this kind of reaction from web-lurkers whose turf is been fenced and divided by politicians impacting our freedoms in the name of public gooD. Its 'their' territory and this is how its defended.

Frozencry

3 years ago

To me it just seems like a clear message from a couple of angry whitehats "You can try control us, but we have a lot more power than you think". Whitehats (and the scarier blackhats) live off the internet, so to me it just looks to be a small forewarning that they're going to put up a nasty fight against censorship etc.

djrussell

3 years ago

The Genius wrote

People shouldn't support this. It makes gamers look bad! This is all playing into Artinkson's hands as it further validates his point about violent games.

Gamers 0

Artinkson 1

I tend to agree.

Matt Bassos

3 years ago

Edited to clear that the focus is no doubt more on the internet censorship then ratings. Cheers to the posters (especially Benza) for clearing this up.

Still it comes across as related, and there has been talks about ratings falling into the overall censorship of the OFLC, which is why Gamespot thought it was interesting to throw up as well.

MrAndyPuppy

3 years ago

Check this out: http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet&id=588

They had more questions for Conroy than they've ever had for anyone previously. Over 2000 people put in submissions.

The episode is worth watching in full - plenty of stuff to be concerned about, particulary with Conroy admitting that PG-rated stuff got blacklisted due to a technical error and that the filter will not be able to stop P2P.

stick_theory

3 years ago

i think this is a legitimate way of protesting. the immature thing to do would have been to actually corrupt the site.
Its kinda like the cyber equivalent of a picket line bearing signs that contain altered versions of the policies they are against.
It was peaceful and tasteful. I also think that the fact these people could hack into such an important website (and stop at just changing a message) showcased the intelligence and integrity of the (possibly) gaming/internet community.
Did anyone else think this?

Dani

3 years ago

Legitimate? A more accurate equivalent would be breaking and entering, leaving prank messages all over the place and making a mess of the property in the meantime. Let's just condone the wrong way to go about things, shall we?

Ken_Gooner

3 years ago

Obviously this doesn't exactly put a good word in for gamers and major internet users and the sort. Especially since we're trying to convince the government that we are mature and responsible, and that we deserve the right to play whatever games we like and surf whatever websites we like.

Bloody hilarious though.

Page12 3 Next

View as forum topic

Add Comment