MIT Webpages Defaced to Mark Anniversary of Aaron Swartz’ Suicide

A hacker with the Twitter handle @ulzr1z infiltrated and vandalized fifteen sub-domains of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology website as part of a campaign called #OpAaronSwartz.

Many of the defacements contained the following message: ““./Hacked by Ulzr1z; Follow me @ulzr1z; #OpAaronSwartz Hacked!”

This breach apparently was a tribute to the late free information activist Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide Jan. 11, 2013.

Swartz was indicted for downloading academic journal articles in bulk from MIT’s database. He took his life while awaiting trial.

The website vandal tweeted the WordPress content management system panel of MIT’s website as proof of the compromise:

Ulzr1z posted a list of the hacked pages on Pastebin:

§  http://excedrin.media.mit.edu/

§  http://dfe.media.mit.edu/

§  http://biomech.media.mit.edu/

§  http://mas834.media.mit.edu/

§  http://dkroy.media.mit.edu/

§  http://obm.media.mit.edu/

§  http://fabworkshop.media.mit.edu/

§  http://scifi2scifab.media.mit.edu/

§  http://labx.media.mit.edu/faq/

§  http://iml.media.mit.edu/

§  http://socialphysics.media.mit.edu/about/

§  http://design3d.media.mit.edu/

§  http://mitcityfarm.media.mit.edu/hacked/

§  http://listentree.media.mit.edu/

§  http://socialmachines.media.mit.edu/