'Natural health' website apparently hacked by sinister forces
Oh no
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A two-man "natural health" website claims to be the victim of a DDoS and hacking attack after it mounted an attack on a scientific paper outlining the health benefits – or lack of same – of organic foods.
At the start of the week scientists at Stanford University published a peer-reviewed study suggesting that organic foods contain about the same nutritional value as non-organic foods, and are not necessarily safer. In response, "health activist and researcher" Anthony Gucciardi, co-founder of the website Nation of Change, wrote a post on his website criticising the Stanford boffins' study – and then claimed that his site was hit almost immediately by a DDoS attack that took down its servers.
Such attacks aren't uncommon these days, since any script kiddy can download free code to stage a DDoS with very little resources. But Gucciardi says the attack was followed up by a hacker that got into their servers and tried to delete the article itself.
Gucciardi claims to have experienced a similar attack last year which also tried to remove a post from his site. That piece, entitled "Hungary Destroys all Monsanto GMO Corn Fields", was apparently briefly removed by unknown hackers.
"The attacks show nothing more than the fact that organizations with serious vested interest in deception and fortified corruption are desperately clinging on to any shred of credibility that they have left," wrote Gucciardi. "By the way, we cannot confirm at the time who issued the attacks. What we can say, however, is that it is an organization with large scale capability."
The website is now back online. El Reg contacted Nature of Change for additional information and comment, but received no response in time for publication. ®
COMMENTS
DDoD or not..
.. I have absolutely NO respect for any organisation that links to sites with an exit popup.
Exit popups ("Hey, do you really want to leave? Here is a special offer") are in my opinion one of the worst tactics of hard selling, and the moment I encounter it the site is effectively on my banned list. Not only will I not examine the site or its products further, it gets actively blacklisted.
If I had time I'd seek a plugin that would spot the "on exit" presence and not even go onto the page.
Now, back to the topic - I think I may have a look at the study now. I really dislike GM and the various additives (and the sirup used to make things taste "better" - especially aspartame doesn't exactly do that for me), but that doesn't immediately equate to "organic" although that is claim they'd like me to believe..
Re: Couple daft things about the "organic" label.
Nice try on the inorganic water, but I would imagine the preferref drinks will just switch to club soda and sparkling water, both of which are CARBONated. Ha ha! Organic water!
PS. Joke mode in effect. No icon because I'm posting mobile.
Re: Couple daft things about the "organic" label.
Focusing on the nutritional content of the food, organic or otherwise, is to miss the point. The real problem with industrially farmed food is not the inherent nutritiousness of the food (which would have to be at least pretty similar to any alternative, otherwise whats the point in eating it), but with what is added to it to help it grow, ie pesticides, weedkillers and fertilisers.
Personally I have a big problem with pesticides above all, as the idea of deliberately poisoning food in order to kill animals (insects usually, but they are still animals) strikes me as asking for trouble. Not to mention that as they kill insects pretty indiscriminately, they have a disastrous effect on ecosystems. Plus, speaking as a beekeeper, I strongly suspect that many of the stories of 'colony collapse disorder' are linked to pesticides (in fact the evidence points to the seed-applied, and thus systemically present, neonicotinoids as the main culprits).
Weedkillers and fertilisers simply complete the job of ecosystem destruction, and taking it to the ultimate endpoint, our agricultural land will be turned first into a 'green desert', where only the crops survive, and then most probably into a true desert, as soil structure is a complicated thing, and largely dependent on the action of things living in it.
In our desire to control our environment, we may be screwing it up beyond repair. So while I dislike the 'green' lobby, I find myself agreeing with their goals on this one, if not their principles.
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