Kinder, gentler pagejackers

Cracking a Web site and putting up lots of "d00dz" graffiti or pro-Turkish propaganda is nothing new. But Seth Finkelstein reports that phishers and assorted other vermin are getting more subtle: In an attempt to capitalize on a prominent site's Google PageRank, they'll break in and insert some links to their own phishing/whatever sites:

One "advantage" of this scam is that sites of non-profit organizations are likely to have a lot of rank and trust, but overworked and underpaid webmasters, which makes such sites a "sweet spot" for exploitation.

So obscure, "hidden" links inserted in various places are not likely to be noticed, and finding someone to fix the page won't set off the sort of red alert reaction involved in credit-card theft.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO has now been hit by this scam, as well as many other sites.